EGYPT’S HERITAGE REVIEW

ISSUE 5Vol. III 2009

Issue 5

2009

When MohaMed ali Was hoT!The lasT of The egypTian Wilds

a VisiT To The CopTiC MuseuM

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48 Abdel Moneim Hafez Street, Midan El Sabaa’ Emarat, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt Tel/Fax: (+202) 2290 8127 - 2415 8762 Mobile: 010 120 0808 - 010 00 2322 - 010 005 2323E-mail: editor@turath-egypt.com Website: www.turath-egypt.com© Copyright 2007 Turath is a Quarterly publication published by: LC Live Colors Nicosia, CyprusLi

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Live Colors, NicosiaPublisher

EditoriaLEditor in Chief Moguib Rouchdy

MaNagEMENtYasmine El dorghamy

Najla El HalwagyContributors aliaa mossallam, Amr S.

Talaat, dina bakhoum, eva dadrian, gamal el ghi-tany, Iman R. Abdulfattah, Mennat-Allah El Dorry, mohamed el hebeishy, nadja tomoum, Nigel Hetherington

Translators Humphrey daviesShereen MoussadNesma Gabr

artArt Director Faris Hassanein

Creative & Layout Designer Mohamed Hani

pHotograpHYMiriam Benyamein

Financial Consultant Sabry attia MossadAccountant ahmed abbass

MarkEtiNgMarketing Manager Wael ElShafie

SaLES tEaMSales Executive Nancy Hassab

adMiNiStratioN & produCtioNOffice Managers Mirette philips

Magda adibAsst. Distribution Officer Wael Mostafa

Distribution Officer Mohamed EzzatDistribution al ahram, next

Prepress & Printing Sahara printing Company

goLd SpoNSor

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A question I always got when I first began telling people about the idea of a magazine on Egyp-tian heritage was; “Are you going to have enough material for a regular publication? You’ll run out in no time.” A year later, this question has been replaced by the same people, with

another one: “Can you make it monthly instead of quarterly?” They had no idea there were so many surprises in store.

A year has passed, we’ve told many stories, and we haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg. Our roster of ideas keeps growing as Egypt reveals more and more secrets, and there’s always a little something for everyone.

In this issue’s cover story; Eva Dadrian goes back to the good old days when Mohamed Ali Street was the hottest (and wildest) spot in town. The belly dancers of Egypt were “Shimmering in Silver and Gold” as they wore their tradi-tional Tally dresses. Iman Abdulfattah discovers how this traditional craft of weaving precious metals into fabric has evolved into the 21st century beyond belly dancing costumes.

To celebrate our first anniversary, we found nothing more fitting than to reprint the wonderful foreward written by Gamal El Ghitany for our very first issue, a tribute to Egypt’s culture of both continuity and change.

Yasmine El Dorghamy

Founder

Cover: Dancing Girls at Cairo - drawing by David Roberts (1796- 1864), lithographed by Louis Haghe (1806-1885), published between 1846 and 1849

ERRATA Volume II 2009- Issue 4P. 58 �e “Serabit el Khadim” article is photographed by Sara Abou Bakr, not Monica Hanna.P. 37 Photograph is of Gezira palace garden, not Shoubra palace garden

TURATH - EGYPT’S HERITAGE REVIEW

VOLUME 02008

TU

RAT

H - EG

YPT’S H

ERITA

GE R

EVIEW

A Private Tour through Zaafaran PalaceWho Really Bought the Tramway?

Going, Going .... GONE?Heritage at Risk

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8 ReflectionsThe Continuity of Egyptian Culture

12 Heritage NewsWhat’s New with the Old

20 VisitThe Coptic Museum

28 Cover StoryWhen Mohamed Ali was HOT!

36 Going, Going… GoneHeritage at RiskThe Last of the Egyptian Wilds

40 I Saw, I �ought, I Wrote: Express yourself

44 Egyptian Chic - Arts & Crafts Shimmering in Silver and Gold - The Art of TallyNoura Mossalam’s Traditional Handicrafts

50 Profile - Champions of HeritageFarid Mansour - Lending a Helping Hand

54 Saved - Working to Keep Our Memories AliveReclaiming the Crafts of the City of 1000 Minarets

58 Unraveling: Trivia, Surprises and Myth Busters

62 How it all Started: Intangible HeritageEl Sira El Helaleyya -of Past and Present

66 Egyptian TalesFrom Cannes to Si Khalil

74 Read

76 FeatureNew Name, New Face?The Ever-Evolving Bab el Hadid

80 Arabic Sectionالموضوعات المترجمة للعربية

Cover Story�e glory days of Mohamed Ali StreetPage: 38

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Amr S. Talaat is a historian specialized in Egypt’s mod-ern history. He has con-ducted extensive research on many significant events and personalities of that era. His approach is to always try to take a fresh look on old preconceptions. He has published many articles on the Mohamed Ali Dynasty era and frequently gives lec-tures on the same topic.

Aliaa Mossallam, infatu-ated with hawadit and the universes weaved through stories, poetry and songs, is currently exploring popular culture, and such practices as spaces for the develop-ment of alternative social and political imaginaries. Alia spends most of her time collecting stories (disguised as a PhD student at the Lon-don School of Economics and Political Sciences) and the rest of it, working with marginalized children with other forms of art.

Dina Eshak Bakhoum is a construction engineer spe-cialized in conservation and restoration of built heritage and holds an M.A. in Islamic Art and Architecture. She worked on several conser-vation and archaeological projects in Cairo and in the Theban Necropolis. Cur-rently she works as a Con-servation Program Manager for the Aga Khan Cultural Services – Egypt.

Eva Dadrian is a British-Egyptian independent broadcaster and writer with extensive experience in Afri-ca, the Middle East and Eu-

rope. She works as a political risk analyst for Arab Africa Affairs (London and Cape Town) and writes also in The Weekly and Hebdo (Al Ah-ram, Cairo). As a documen-tary/feature reporter with BBC World Service, she cov-ers issues ranging from arts to science and from environ-ment to religion.

Iman R. Abdulfattah has her MA in Islamic Art and Ar-chitecture from the Ameri-can University in Cairo (AUC). She currently works for the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in Cairo on various museum proj-ects, most important of which is the renovation of the Museum of Islamic Art.

Mennat-Allah El Dorry holds an M.A. in Egyptian Archaeology and is a spe-cialist in Archaeobotany. She has worked on many ar-chaeological sites through-out Egypt for the last 6 years. Her interests span from social organisation in the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods, to food and agricultural traditions in monastic settlements to Pharaonic elements in Egyp-tian Cinema.

Mohamed El Hebeishy is a freelance travel writer and photographer. His articles and photo-essays cover trav-el destinations, mainly in Egypt and the Middle East. He has also participated in different photography exhi-bitions held in Cairo , Lon-don and Rome . El Hebeishy is author and photographer of the widely acclaimed book ‘Egypt Rediscovered’

Nadja Tomoum is the head of the Coptic Museum Training Project (training curators in museology) and is the manager of the mu-seum’s Manuscript Condi-tion Survey and Cataloguing Project. Dr. Tomoum holds an MA and PhD from Mu-nich University in Egyptol-ogy and Art History and is also the managing editor of Parrhêsia, a quarterly newsletter published by the Friends of the Coptic Mu-seum.

Nigel Hetherington (Heri-tage News) is a graduate from the Institute of Ar-chaeology at University College London and is a member of the International Association of Egyptolo-gists. He runs his own con-sultancy company; Past Pre-servers providing historical and archaeological consul-tancy and professional sup-port to the media industry. Nigel is also in the process of researching and writing a book on the history of tour-ism in Luxor.

Forward by Gamal El GhitanyGamal El Ghitany is a widely acclaimed nov-

elist, short story writer and journalist. He is the author of many historical novels and cultural and political commentaries and is the current editor-in-chief of the literary periodical Akhbar Al-Adab (“Cultural News”).

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Even though the sentences he used were from the Qur’an, that is to say from the Islamic tradition, the rite performed by my eldest relative harks back

to Ancient Egyptian beliefs, to a buried Egyptian culture practiced by Egyptians of all creeds unaware that they are continuing the tradition of their forefathers.

In just the same way, they use a wide variety of words in their day to day language that they do not realize to be Ancient Egyptian words, words to be found in special con-structions that lend a particularity to the Egyptian dialect and give it its distinct character within the framework of the classical Arabic language.

On occasion, when in the Egyptian countryside, and es-pecially in the south where I was born close to Luxor and Abydos, I halt before a certain scene—of a village, a farm, a bird fluttering its wings, the disc of the sun at sunset

or sunrise, the return of peasants from the fields to their houses. I mentally exclude certain manifestations of this day and age such as lighting poles and cars, should any be present, and I find no contradiction between the scenes of daily life painted on the walls of the tombs and what I see before me.

I smell the scent of bread rising from the houses, espe-cially that ancient Egyptian form known as ‘sun bread,’ made using a method of baking whereby the dough is put out by day to suckle from the universe, from the rays of the sun. I inhale the smell of life when it is done and emerges from the oven, and I am convinced that it is the same smell that our ancient ancestors knew thousands of years ago. To this day, the Turin Museum preserves eight loaves, in the Tomb of Ka; they are of the very same bread that I saw when I first opened my eyes in Upper Egypt. I observe the methods used to preserve food, starting with the cheeses,

The Continuity ofEgyptian CultureGamal El-GhitanyTranslated by Humphrey Davies

(Reprinted from Vol. I, Issue I)

On the day that my father completed his life’s journey, he lay on his bed both present and not present. The relatives came to look upon him for the last time and the eldest of them approached him, bent down, bringing his mouth close to his ear, which could no longer hear, and, despite this, ut-tered moving words, calling him by his name as though he were alive and then asking him not to feel lonely and telling him that all these people had come for him, because he was a righteous man who had carried out his mission in life as he ought and that he would therefore meet no perils along the way, though should he do so, he should recite some verses from the Noble Qur’an.

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Even though the sentences he used were from the Qur’an, that is to say from the Islamic tradition, the rite performed by my eldest relative harks back

to Ancient Egyptian beliefs, to a buried Egyptian culture practiced by Egyptians of all creeds unaware that they are continuing the tradition of their forefathers.

In just the same way, they use a wide variety of words in their day to day language that they do not realize to be Ancient Egyptian words, words to be found in special con-structions that lend a particularity to the Egyptian dialect and give it its distinct character within the framework of the classical Arabic language.

On occasion, when in the Egyptian countryside, and es-pecially in the south where I was born close to Luxor and Abydos, I halt before a certain scene—of a village, a farm, a bird fluttering its wings, the disc of the sun at sunset

or sunrise, the return of peasants from the fields to their houses. I mentally exclude certain manifestations of this day and age such as lighting poles and cars, should any be present, and I find no contradiction between the scenes of daily life painted on the walls of the tombs and what I see before me.

I smell the scent of bread rising from the houses, espe-cially that ancient Egyptian form known as ‘sun bread,’ made using a method of baking whereby the dough is put out by day to suckle from the universe, from the rays of the sun. I inhale the smell of life when it is done and emerges from the oven, and I am convinced that it is the same smell that our ancient ancestors knew thousands of years ago. To this day, the Turin Museum preserves eight loaves, in the Tomb of Ka; they are of the very same bread that I saw when I first opened my eyes in Upper Egypt. I observe the methods used to preserve food, starting with the cheeses,

The Continuity ofEgyptian CultureGamal El-GhitanyTranslated by Humphrey Davies

(Reprinted from Vol. I, Issue I)

On the day that my father completed his life’s journey, he lay on his bed both present and not present. The relatives came to look upon him for the last time and the eldest of them approached him, bent down, bringing his mouth close to his ear, which could no longer hear, and, despite this, ut-tered moving words, calling him by his name as though he were alive and then asking him not to feel lonely and telling him that all these people had come for him, because he was a righteous man who had carried out his mission in life as he ought and that he would therefore meet no perils along the way, though should he do so, he should recite some verses from the Noble Qur’an.

9

the liquid culture known as mishsh, the cured fish (mu-luha and fisikh), and the dry Jews’ mallow (mulukhiya). All these are made using the same methods that were followed then. Indeed, even the way in which people sit around the low round table (tabliya) and the etiquette of eating do not differ greatly from those depicted on the walls of the tombs.

One morning I was on my way to the printer’s at the newspaper publishing house Akhbar al-Yawm, which is lo-cated in one of Cairo’s oldest quarters, Bulaq. Suddenly, I beheld a group of women emerge from a side alley, all of them swathed in black, one, a young woman of imposing height. She occupied the middle of the first row and her face was daubed with blue indigo, the Ancient Egyptian symbol of mourning. She was making movements reminis-cent of a dance, but an ago-nized, grief-stricken dance. As she moved her hands upward, I saw the same cel-ebrated scene of mourning women that is depicted in the Tomb of Ramose on the West Bank at Luxor, a scene repeated many times in the tombs that have survived to our day. It is the human expression of eternal sorrow, that cruelest sorrow that is the result of loss, which made the Ancient Egyptians reject death and view it as the start of a new life, which they termed ‘emergence into day,’ since man, on dying, becomes one with the light of the stars. In Upper Egypt, when people see a shooting star falling at night, they say that it is a soul with whom God is angry and that has been expelled from eternal rest, or that it is the soul of a man that has just been released. There is a connection between the vast spaces of the universe and their phenomena and man, between the tiniest minutiae of human life and all other natural phenomena.

In the course of my migrations between the life I live and the past of which I read, I have become acquainted with the two fundamental elements that govern Egyptian life and culture. These are continuity and change—two con-tradictory, interconnected, interacting elements that form the essence of the condition that led to the foundation of the first and oldest vocabularies of human civilization.

The River Nile is, without a doubt, the main artery of that life that made its way to its banks. It was man who drained

the swamps and arrived at one of the greatest of human discoveries, agriculture, through the mastery of the river, that river which constitutes a devastating peril should the flood be either too great or too meager. As I became ac-quainted with the detailed operations related to agricul-ture, with the placing of the seed, the cleaning of the soil, its watering, the combating of its pests, I asked myself; How many years did it take man to achieve this knowledge, and why did it happen in that area that lies between the cataracts at Aswan and our northern borders, where they meet the waves of the sea, that area that we call Egypt, or, in ancient times, Kemet, meaning ‘the Black Land’? Over how many eons did man need to travel to discover the se-cret of agriculture and to invent letters for writing, the rep-resentation of reality?

Why did this civilization not appear in other areas along the river, such as at its origins in Ethiopia or between the Great Lakes and the cataracts? The issue is related to the people who lived in that area, and they were the Egyp-tians who lived on that land. They carefully observed the movement of the universe from east to west, the flow of the river’s waters, the descent of ‘the drop’—the first drop of water signaling the flood—and its coincidence with the summer arrival of the Sotis star. The descent of this drop may be regarded as the start of the spiritual and cultural formation of the people. I am not concerned here with their most distant roots or the hypotheses put forward by ex-perts about the areas from which they came to the valley. What concerns me are their human achievements, which were fundamentally cultural and spiritual—cultural in the sense that they were attempts to understand the universe, to adopt a position on life.

Just as the waters of the Nile flow on, at times devas-tating with their flood all that lies in their path, at others yielding only a meager trickle, so it is with man. The wa-ters have never been cut off from their channel and man’s occupation has never ceased. This is the continuity of ex-istence. The Egyptians have never ceased to exist. Oth-ers have made their way to them. Assimilation and change

Even though the sentences he used were from the Qur’an, that is to say from the Islamic tradition, the rite performed by my eldest rela-tive harks back to Ancient Egyptian beliefs

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have taken place, change that took place on occasion peacefully and on other occasions with violence and pain, change that, at one stage, affected the language, creed, and system that had been in place for thousands of years. The Egyptians were defeated, materially and spiritually, when they accepted Alexander the Great as the son of the god Amun and the priests enthroned him Pharaoh in the oasis of Siwa; the pharaohs had never come from beyond the borders of Kemet. The Ptolemaic era began but in no time Egypt absorbed the new rulers, who embraced its vi-sion totally. When we approach the temple of Hathor at Dendera, or of Horus at Edfu, we will never doubt that these are pharaonic temples in all their aspects, visible and invisible. If the visitor does not know the hieroglyphic script, he will never realize that those who built the tem-

ples were the Ptolemies, with their foreign roots. Egypt also suffered the invasions of the Persians, the Assyrians, and the Bedouin tribes of the surrounding deserts. At another stage, Egypt became a dependency of the Roman Empire. A profound spiritual change occurred when Egypt embraced Christianity, which I view as a reformulation of the origi-nal Egyptian religion, but when the Egyptians embraced this incoming religion, they brought to it their own vision, which continued to prevail unshakably despite the perse-cutions of the Roman era.

Each seemingly deep change that occurs touches only the surface. A small part of it may be implemented, but, by a variety of means, the people take steps to preserve the ancient hidden essence. There, beyond the reach of any new invaders to uproot, this substance survives in the details of daily life—in food, its vocabulary and the ways in which it is cooked and presented, and the eti-quette associated with it, in music, in popular literature, in beliefs passed down, especially by women, and which the mother imparts to her children as she feeds them, in building.

A moment on which I dwell at length and that I wish I could have witnessed, is that which occurred on one par-ticular night at the temple of Isis on the island of Philae, in the deepest south. This was the last temple in which the rites of the worship of motherhood, femininity, and sacrifice were practiced, the temple of the goddess Isis, who became to the Egyptians later ‘the Virgin,’ and then ‘al-Sayyida Za-ynab,’ sister of the Imam Husayn. The Roman Empire had issued its orders for the abolition of the ancient rites in every part of Egypt. On that night, the prayers to the god-dess Isis were recited, the hymns were chanted, and the temple locked. But . . . did the worship of Isis really come to an end? Did the symbol of motherhood and sacrifice, of the mother, sister, and loving wife, disappear? Or did it as-sume a more legitimized and less definite shape?

When the Arabs entered Egypt in the seventh cen-tury of the Christian era, the country was in ruins, ex-hausted by its wounds, but it was not a void. The Egyp-

tians practiced Christianity according to the vision of the Coptic Egyptian church. The distant past was obscure, mysterious. The meanings of the first writing system in his-tory, the sacred hieroglyphics, had been lost, though the language continued in the form of Coptic, which became mixed with a little Greek and adopted the latter’s alpha-bet. The significance of the awe-inspiring buildings, such as the temples, the military installations, and the tombs, had also been lost and these buildings had been left to ruins; indeed, they had been left to ruin by the hands of the Egyptians themselves in the strangest manifestation of continuity and change to come to my attention.

When the Egyptians embraced the newly arrived Christi-anity, they considered the ancient religion a hostile force. Some of them began to destroy its symbols, as we see in the lower parts of the temple of Abydos, for example, where we may observe that the reliefs, and especially the eyes and noses, have been disfigured. This is an Ancient Egyp-tian belief, for when an Egyptian drew someone and then gouged out or disfigured his eyes or nose, this meant to him that he was depriving that person of his sight and

The Egyptians have always rediscovered their distant roots when seeking rebirth during the periods when they were ignorant of the de-tails of their ancient history

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smell, which is to say his ability to see or breathe; in other words, that he was taking his life. Thus, using the same culture that the believers of the new religion had inherited, they destroyed the heritage of their forefathers, whom they regarded as unbelieving infidels. Then the new believers would write, beneath what they had done, that they had carried this out in order to gain favor with the Lord. When the Arabs invaded Egypt, despite the fact that they came to spread the new religion Islam, which forbade the drawing and sculpting of images, they did no great damage to the existing ancient monuments even while regarding these as pagan idols. Why? Perhaps because, at first, they wanted to gain favor with the people of the country, or perhaps because of the continued currency and strength of the leg-ends. When I was a small child in my village of Juheina in southern Egypt, the people of the village used to describe the Ancient Egyptian statues that were to be found in the desert as ‘the metamorphosized,’ meaning that these statues were originally human beings and that God had turned them to stone as a punishment for sins they had committed. Others said that these statues had talismans, that is to say guardians from the other world to protect them and hurt any who approached them or offered them harm. This is a survival of an Ancient Egyptian belief, for a statue of Anubis used to be placed in front of a tomb, at the entrance, in order to protect it. Drawings and amulets were used in the same way.

Nowadays, Ancient Egypt is presented as though it be-longed to others, some academic syllabi speaking of a Pharaonic period, a separate, Coptic, period and a third, Islamic, period. In my opinion, this is a mistaken notion. Egyptian history is one, though it has different stages. Its essence survives in the deep, buried, human culture of the country. True, this culture has changed in the various periods, but these have been superficial changes that have not affected the core. This is the dialectic, the heart of the problem of the culture of the Egyptians.

There is a further problem: the Hebraic view of the Egyp-tians was transferred to Christianity, and thence to Islam. In this, according to the holy text, whether that be the Old Testament or the Noble Qur’an, Pharaoh becomes symbol-ic of tyranny. At the same time, the Egyptians take pride in

being the descendents of the creators of all those wonders of architecture, art, and literature. This is the contradic-tion that has existed in the consciousness of the major-ity of Egyptians. Since the seventies of the last century and starting with the rise of a hard-line Islam derived from Wahhabite teachings coming from the desert. During the 1919 Great National Revolution against the British occu-pation, the Egyptians were not aware of this contradiction. The revival of Ancient Egyptian traditions in architecture, in art, and in creative literature was a significant spur to the Renaissance Movement (al-Nahda). The Egyptians have always rediscovered their distant roots when seek-ing rebirth during the periods when they were ignorant of the details of their ancient history. This is what we find in the Mamluk era, especially with regard to architecture. The Egyptian mosques that were erected during the Mam-luk era, up to the defeat of the Mamluks by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, are simply a return to the traditions of An-cient Egyptian architecture. Following the discovery of the secrets of the Ancient Egyptian language by Champollion and the start of an Egyptian awareness of the details of their history, Ancient Egypt became a rich source of inspi-ration. This vision has been affected negatively by two po-litical currents. The first was Arab Nationalism, during the period of its expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, since its thinkers regarded Pharaonic Egypt as incompatible with the Arab Idea. And in recent decades, certain hard-line religious currents have adopted opposed visions. To see the historical phases of an ancient nation such as Egypt placed in opposition to one another is indeed a cause of sadness, but these are, in my estimation, passing errors. Many a wind has blown over the Nile, sometimes to the detriment of the river, the valley, and its people, but their essence, at a profound level, has remained inviolate. All we need is to make the effort to see it and observe it. When we do this, we will discover the profound achievement of Egyptian culture, namely, that of continuity with change. That this discovery be made is essential for the soul of the nation and for the spiritual equilibrium of the Egyptians. To do so will require long-term academic work and cultur-al efforts at a number of levels. I consider the appearance of a publication of this high standard, devoted to Egypt’s cultural substance, whether present or past, to be a very significant step on that path.

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With the summer heat bearing down on us, spare a thought for those archaeologists at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) hard at

work while you were at the beach.Here’s a roundup of what they have been dis-

covering, conserving and building since we last talked.

Lake Qarun

Pottery in situ north of Lake Qarun. Photo: Khaled Saad/ SCA

Coins found in the site. Photo Khaled Saad/ SCA

An Egyptian mission has discovered an area to the north of Lake Qarun in the Faiyum re-gion that is rich in archaeological and paleonto-logical remains dating back as far as 40 million years. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the 10 kilometre-wide area is currently being ex-plored to prevent valuable information from be-ing lost to planned touristic developments in the

area. Following a preliminary survey that began about a year ago, full-scale excavations have been underway since March 10 2009.

SCA archaeologists have found numerous ar-tefacts in the area dating to the prehistoric peri-od, including arrowheads and other finely craft-ed stone artefacts of Mousterian, Levallois, and Aterian type. They have also uncovered pottery and stone beads dating to the same era, along with the remains of shelters used by prehistoric hunters. Archaeological remains from later peri-ods are also present in the area. A cemetery that most probably dates to the Greco-Roman period has yielded coins and other small artefacts. The team has explored a tomb in this cemetery con-sisting of a deep shaft ending in two chambers, but further excavation has been hampered by constantly shifting sands. In addition to the pre-historic and Greco-Roman remains found in the area, the archaeologists have discovered pottery, pipes, coins, and glassware dating to the Fatim-id and Mamluk periods. Other finds include medical and cosmetic tools, as well as stone shot used in hunting animals during the Islamic era.

Fossils of whales and other marine life dating back to around 40 million years ago have also been found in the area. In addition to cetaceans like those found in the famous Valley of the Whales to the west of the Faiyum, the SCA team has uncovered the remains of sea cows and saw-fish. These fossils are the remnants of a time when much of northern Egypt was submerged under an ancient sea.

Luxor Discovery

Dr. Hawass and his the mission examining the finds. Photo: SCA

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Another Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered an 18th Dynasty tomb (1570-1315 BC) in the necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor’s west bank.

One of the Ushabti figures made of burned clay and faience. Photo: SCA

The newly discovered tomb belonged to the Supervisor of Hunters, Amun-em-Opet, and it dates to shortly before the reign of King Akhenat-en (1372-1355 BC).

Dr. Hawass, head of the mission, stated that the entrances to two further undecorated tombs have also been found to the north-west of this tomb; in addition, seven funerary seals bearing the name of Amenhotep-Ben-Nefer, the Super-visor of the Cattle of Amun, were found in the courtyard of the first tomb. More seals bearing the name of Eke, the Royal Messenger and Su-pervisor of the Palace, were unearthed in the courtyard of the second. Furthermore, fragmen-tary remains of several unidentified mummies have also been found, as well as a collection of Ushabti figures made of burned clay and faience.

Step Pyramid

Egyptian archaeologists, performing rou-tine conservation work at the southern side of Saqqara’s step pyramid (2687-2668 BC), have stumbled upon what is believed to be a deep shaft full of the remains of animals and birds. The mission has also found that the shaft’s floor is covered with a layer of plaster.

The mission unearthed a large quantity of fragments of gold during their restoration work

at the southern tomb of Djoser’s pyramid. These fragments may have been used by the ancient Egyptians of the Late Period to decorate wooden sarcophagi or to cover carttonage coffins. Thirty granite blocks were also discovered, each weigh-ing five tons. These blocks are said to have be-longed to the granite sarcophagus that once housed Djoser’s wooden sarcophagus - the final resting place of the king’s mummy.

A falcon’s beak. Photo: SCA

The remains of hooves and a horn. Photo: SCA

While cleaning the internal corridors of the pyramid, the mission also found limestone blocks bearing the names of King Djoser’s daughters, as well as wooden instruments, remains of wooden statues, bone frag-ments, the remains of a mummy, and clay vessels of different sizes.

Cartonnage discovered during work at Saqqara

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Haremhab’s Tomb Reopened

A scene from inside the tomb: Photo: SCA

Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, has an-nounced that the tomb of Haremhab, in the Val-ley of the King’s on Luxor’s West Bank, has been reopened following the installation of state-of-the-art equipment to control the rate of humid-ity within. He added that this tomb is the first to have such technology installed in an attempt to reduce and control the rate of humidity and heat, which has affected the tomb’s wall paint-ings in the past, leading to its original closure.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, said that a German company, specializing in such technology, provided the equipment, fol-lowing several years of scientific studies, in order to provide a suitable atmosphere in the tomb. A scientific team is now monitoring the efficiency of the equipment, and if all operates success-fully the equipment will be installed in all tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

Egyptian Defences

A new discovery by an SCA archaeological mis-sion in Ismailia Governorate was announced by the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni. The team revealed the remains of a fortified garrison town from the time of King Psmatik I of the 26th Dy-nasty (ca. 664-625 B.C.) at the site of Tell Dafna, between El-Manzala lake and the Suez canal, about 15km northeast of the city of western Qa-ntara.

The northeast Delta held a special position in ancient Egypt; the area acted as a major centre for trade with the east, and was also the location of an ancient military and trade route known as the Ways of Horus, which connected Egypt with the east. The area was used as a strategic point by the Late Period kings (ca. 747-525 B.C), espe-cially those of the 26th Dynasty, in order to de-fend the eastern borders of Egypt from invaders. The newly discovered fortress covers an area of about 380×625m, while the enclosure wall is about 13m in width. It is considered to be the largest fortress discovered in the eastern Delta.

Bronze arrowheads found on the site. Photo: SCA

Eastern Magazines of the Temple. Photo: SCA

The mission also discovered a large mudbrick temple, consisting of three halls which also con-tains a group of storage magazines at the east-ern and western sides of the structure. A small mudbrick palace was also discovered at the northeast side of the temple, consisting of eight rooms. Furthermore, the mission discovered a

15

group of drainage networks for rain water in-side the ancient structures, consisting of pottery tunnels that end with a group of pottery vessels buried vertically in the sand to a depth of about three meters.

A large number of pottery vessels, as well as local and imported pottery lids, were found. These are representative of the large scale trad-ing activity between Egypt, the near East and Greece at this time. A white plate inscribed with Demotic text, some red and black decorated Am-phora, a group of stones used for grinding seeds, an amulet in the form of Wadjet-eye and parts of alabaster kohl pots were also among the finds. Many bronze arrow heads were also discovered, revealing the military nature of the site.

Museum News

Culture Minister approves program to train museum staff nationwide

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni recently gave the go-ahead for a program to train museum secretaries and antiquities inspectors through-out the country. The project, in tandem with UNESCO, aims to train young archaeologists, said Dr Zahi Hawass.

Hawass added that a facility is currently be-ing established in cooperation with UNESCO to provide training for all museum staff.

“A project for training is also being implement-ed at the Coptic Museum in cooperation with the Germans,” he added.

A “Turath” museum inaugurated at the Pharaonic Village

A museum dedicated to Egyptian heritage has been recently inaugurated at the Pharaonic Vil-lage in Giza. The museum focuses mainly on traditional Egyptian scenes (many of which have disappeared), social customs and characters represented through figurines and historical photographs with all the relevant explanations.

Among the museum’s collection of Egyptian scenes is the Zar, a ritual ceremony traditionally used to cure mental illness through contact with the possessing spirits which cause maladies.

16

Another exhibit shows the different characters one would meet in a typical Egyptian village. A particularly charming display demonstrates the Sebou’; a tradition rooted in ancient Egypt and still practiced today, in which an infant is cel-ebrated and welcomed into the world seven days after its birth.

The Sebou’ festivities

Egyptian characters from the village

Ottoman Museum reopens in Rosetta

The Rosetta National Museum was officially in-augurated by President Mubarak early this Au-gust. The museum displays 600 objects chosen to show the history of Rosetta from the time of the town’s foundation in antiquity right through to the modern era.

Pieces were selected from the Islamic and Cop-tic museums as well as the Gayer Anderson House in Cairo. Another 200 objects were un-earthed from archaeological sites around Roset-

ta. These include a collection of Omayyad and Ottoman gold and bronze coins, pots and pans, versions of the holy Quran and a number of 18th- and 19th-century weapons such as arrows, swords, knives and pistols. Tapestry, military and national Ottoman and Mamluk costumes are also on show.

Models of the Qait Bey Citadel (where the Ro-setta Stone was found), a full size replica of the Rosetta stone and copies of historical documents such as a marriage contract between French General Mennou and the Egyptian Zubayda are also on display.

The Rosetta National Museum was built in the early 17th century and was the official res-idence of the town’s Ottoman governor. In the early 1960s, the house was converted into the town’s museum to commemorate Rosetta’s leg-endary struggle against French and British col-onization. Some years after its conversion, the house fell into disrepair. Several unsuccessful attempts were made for its restoration until the SCA launched a massive project in 2003 for this unique edifice. The restoration took five years and the museum has finally been resurrected and is now open to the public.

The Cairo Museum reveals surprises in its gardens

An offering table found in the cachette. Photo: SCA

The Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, an-nounced that a new archaeological cachette was found yesterday in the western area of the Egyp-tian museum. He added that this discovery was

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made as part of an SCA project to re-develop the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo.

Dr. Zahi Hawass said that the cachette includ-ed nine artifacts, among them an offering table, the upper part of a limestone stela, stones bear-ing hieroglyphs, and an engraved Ramesside limestone column base, with a cobra found next to it. He added that two cachettes had previ-ously been found in the museum’s garden. Prior to 1952, archaeologists used to bury artifacts of questionable authenticity in a quiet corner of the site, but only after they had been recorded in the museum’s register books and scientifically published. Nothing, however, has been found in the museums records concerning this latest ca-chette.

Dr. Hawass said that the museum develop-ment project will create a new route for people visiting the museum. The entrance for visitors will remain at the main gates, but the exit will be at the museum’s western side, where visitors will find new facilities including a large bookstore and a cafeteria. He added that the development project will also undertake the organization of the museum’s basement in order to accommo-date planned lecture halls, a temporary exhibi-tion space and study halls.

Conservation News

New DNA LabCairo University has recently inaugurated a

new DNA lab to establish the identities and lin-eage of the royal mummies. The lab is the sec-ond of its kind in Egypt. The first one was estab-lished at the Egyptian Museum two years ago, said Dr. Hossam Kamel, President of the univer-sity.

Dr. Kamel and Dr. Zahi Hawass were present at the inauguration, “It is very important not to use the same lab to analyze the DNA of living and dead people as there may be confusion in the results,” Dr Hawass said. “Old DNA is very fragile, so we have to extract and multiply it be-fore tests,” said Dr. Sally, one of the five scien-tists working at the lab.

The priority of the new lab, said Hawass, is “to study the family tree of Tutankhamun, as we

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do not know who his father was, and where his mother’s mummy was buried. We will announce key information about Tutankhamun’s family line next August, after comparing the results from the two labs,” Hawass said. The lab, which cost one million U.S dollars, is sponsored by the American Discovery Channel, said Hawass, add-ing that the channel “will shoot what we will be doing.”

Mosques Restored

On the 20th of July, Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr Fathi Al- Baradai inaugurated three historical mosques in the Damietta area after restoration.

These mosques are Amr Ibn El Aas, El– Hadidi and El–Maeny. More on that in the next issue.

And while we’re on the subject of Mosques

Iman Abdulfattah with President Obama and Secretary of State Hill-ary Clinton Photo: Reuters

Our very own Iman Abdulfattah accompanied US president Barak Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on their visit to the 600 year old Sultan Hassan Mosque before heading to Cairo University to give his historic speech to the Islamic World. Abdulfattah, who is an American-Egyptian art historian, explained the history of the mosque and answered ques-tions from both Obama and Clinton.

The return of Cairo’s Ismailia?

The buying out of many downtown Cairo buildings by a private sector company has caused quite a stir and controversy in the lo-cal press over the past months. Al Ismaelia for Real Estate and De-velopment, established in February 2008 un-der the management of Beltone private equity company, an-nounced that it in-tends to purchase one million square meters of downtown Cairo prop-erty. The goal is to acquire, refurbish and raise the real estate value of the area while restoring it to its former glory. “We have been searching for companies that specialize in the adaptive re-use of old buildings,” says Karim El Shafei, the company’s chairman and CEO. “We are keen on getting things right and learning from the expe-riences of other cities that have been able to suc-cessfully reuse their 19th and early 20th century architecture. Downtown Cairo is a jewel and an opportunity that has been overlooked for a long time.” Not just downtown Cairo, we say…

The involvement of the private sector in mat-ters of heritage is relatively uncommon in Egypt. This has added fuel to the public’s skepticism, partly caused by lack of familiarity with the concept. However, with the lack of sufficient government resources and the overwhelming amount of architectural heritage from all eras to preserve nationwide, the introduction of the private sector mentality (as well as funds) could be a promising beginning for Egypt. However, this trend comes with risks, as lax administra-tive control by the government has resulted in the loss of countless privately owned architec-tural jewels over the recent decades. We are, however, optimistic about this new initiative and look forward to its results in the coming years.

The Davies Bryan & Co building (also known as the Shurbagi

building) built circa 1910 and recently purchased by Al Ismaelia

company

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Restoration of the Synagogue of Moses Ben Maimon Begins

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, announced the beginning of the restoration of the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue which should be completed in June 2010. The restoration is part of a national project with the aim of restoring ten Jewish temples across Egypt. ‘I am proud to say that these temples belong to Egypt,’ Dr. Hawass stated, adding, ‘we must take care of them.’

The Temple, located in el-Gamalia, Old Cairo, had been the subject of one year of study be-fore the restoration work itself began in June this year. Due to the high water table, and the need to wait until the sewage system in the area had been improved, restoration work could not

be conducted until now. Since work began, the walls and ceilings have been reinforced, the floor has been isolated from the water table, and all cement -remaining from previous bad quality restoration work - has been removed. The doors, windows and chairs of the temple have also been restored, and the dirt and debris that had built up within has been removed.

The synagogue was declared an antiquity in 1986 due to its historical architecture and reli-gious significance. It is dedicated to Moses Ben Maimon (or Maimonedes as he is also known), who was born in 1135 AD in Cordoba, Spain, but who died in Egypt in 1204. Maimonedes was very influential in the study of mathematics, as-tronomy, and philosophy, and acted as private physician to Saladin.

A True Multicultural

Experience

�e CopticMuseum:

N T

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Every museum keeps some masterpieces that draw visitors’ attention and at times provide a main rea-son for their visit. The Coptic Museum in Old Cairo

is best known for its famous Nag Hammadi Library, pre-cious textiles as well as splendid architectural remains from the monasteries of Saint Jeremiah and Saint Apollo. Many other artifacts at the Coptic Museum deserve the visitors’ interest, but may at first glance be less notice-able than the highlight pieces. Yet, our appreciation for an artefact should not only be restricted to whether it is considered an important historical item or if there is suf-ficient archaeological information at hand to visualize its original context, one should also be open to contemplating and enjoying the artefact without trying to label it as some-thing worth or not worth looking at. Various degrees of quality and perplexing mixtures in iconography and style should not tempt us to weigh objects against each other. We should rather acknowledge that artistic creativity can be expressed in so many different ways and is a direct out-come of a particular socio-cultural atmosphere.

With these reflective thoughts in mind, a visit to the col-lection of the Coptic Museum will reveal a cosmopolitan world full of complex styles and forms and intriguing as-pects of the Coptic Heritage.

Coptic monuments are a testimony of the art production in Egypt during the late Antiquity period, covering a time span from the third to the eighth century C.E. and con-tinuing after the Arab conquest. The first centuries C.E. in Egypt were marked by a multi-religious milieu, in which Christianity was only one of many religious movements. Copt/Coptic originates from the Greek word Aigyptos des-ignating the inhabitants of Egypt. Aigyptos is derived from the Ancient Egyptian word Hwt-Ka-Ptah, one of the names of Memphis, ancient capital of Egypt. When the Arabs con-quered Egypt in the 7th Century C.E., they used the Greek term Aigyptos for a non-Muslim, Qibt, which nowadays popularly names Egypt’s Christians, the Copts.

Coptic artists owed their skills to the exceptional achieve-ments of their Pharaonic ancestors from whom they ad-opted techniques passed on from father to son over many generations and borrowed some of their motifs that were reinterpreted to meet the concepts of a new religion. Among the most frequently depicted Pharaonic elements to be re-

defined by the Copts was the Ankh sign, the Pharaonic key of life, that was transformed into a cross, called the handled cross. Mary lactans, i.e. Virgin Mary nursing her son Jesus, was also a popular Coptic motif and alludes to the Pharaonic goddess Isis breast-feeding her son Horus.

Opposite: Column with Corinthian capital supporting an arch dec-orated with acanthus leaves and vine branches, Monastery of St. Apollo, Bawit, 6th Century 1- ERichly decorated column capitals from the Monastery of St. Jer-emiah, Saqqara, 6th to 7thCentury

1

21

A True Multicultural

Experience

�e CopticMuseum:

N T

20

Every museum keeps some masterpieces that draw visitors’ attention and at times provide a main rea-son for their visit. The Coptic Museum in Old Cairo

is best known for its famous Nag Hammadi Library, pre-cious textiles as well as splendid architectural remains from the monasteries of Saint Jeremiah and Saint Apollo. Many other artifacts at the Coptic Museum deserve the visitors’ interest, but may at first glance be less notice-able than the highlight pieces. Yet, our appreciation for an artefact should not only be restricted to whether it is considered an important historical item or if there is suf-ficient archaeological information at hand to visualize its original context, one should also be open to contemplating and enjoying the artefact without trying to label it as some-thing worth or not worth looking at. Various degrees of quality and perplexing mixtures in iconography and style should not tempt us to weigh objects against each other. We should rather acknowledge that artistic creativity can be expressed in so many different ways and is a direct out-come of a particular socio-cultural atmosphere.

With these reflective thoughts in mind, a visit to the col-lection of the Coptic Museum will reveal a cosmopolitan world full of complex styles and forms and intriguing as-pects of the Coptic Heritage.

Coptic monuments are a testimony of the art production in Egypt during the late Antiquity period, covering a time span from the third to the eighth century C.E. and con-tinuing after the Arab conquest. The first centuries C.E. in Egypt were marked by a multi-religious milieu, in which Christianity was only one of many religious movements. Copt/Coptic originates from the Greek word Aigyptos des-ignating the inhabitants of Egypt. Aigyptos is derived from the Ancient Egyptian word Hwt-Ka-Ptah, one of the names of Memphis, ancient capital of Egypt. When the Arabs con-quered Egypt in the 7th Century C.E., they used the Greek term Aigyptos for a non-Muslim, Qibt, which nowadays popularly names Egypt’s Christians, the Copts.

Coptic artists owed their skills to the exceptional achieve-ments of their Pharaonic ancestors from whom they ad-opted techniques passed on from father to son over many generations and borrowed some of their motifs that were reinterpreted to meet the concepts of a new religion. Among the most frequently depicted Pharaonic elements to be re-

defined by the Copts was the Ankh sign, the Pharaonic key of life, that was transformed into a cross, called the handled cross. Mary lactans, i.e. Virgin Mary nursing her son Jesus, was also a popular Coptic motif and alludes to the Pharaonic goddess Isis breast-feeding her son Horus.

Opposite: Column with Corinthian capital supporting an arch dec-orated with acanthus leaves and vine branches, Monastery of St. Apollo, Bawit, 6th Century 1- ERichly decorated column capitals from the Monastery of St. Jer-emiah, Saqqara, 6th to 7thCentury

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Detail of a kilga, a water jar holder

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22

Detail of a kilga, a water jar holder

23

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3

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Other Coptic motifs and technical practices are related to the artistic repertoire of Ancient Egypt: e.g. Nilotic scenes representing the rich animal and plant life at the banks of the river Nile, were once depicted on the walls of Phara-onic tombs and temples. In Coptic times, the same theme decorated wooden friezes set into the walls of sacral and secular buildings and was often applied to textiles. From the dawn of Egypt’s history down to the Coptic era, the Nile had played an important role in the life of the Egyptians and was used as a symbol to evoke prosperity and well-being.

Panels with geometrical paintings from the famous mon-astery of St. Apollo in Bawit imitate precious mosaics. The rendering of costly material and intricate techniques through painting had already been applied on Pharaonic funerary vessels.

Since early Christianity, there had been serious conflicts between Christian and polytheistic streams. But when Christianity was officially announced a state religion by the 4th century, pre-Christian beliefs were not completely

wiped out. Some striking textual documents from the 5th century describe Aba Shenute, one of the key figures in the establishment of the Coptic Church and among the most famous Coptic writers, as vehemently fighting polytheism. In the same century, the Egyptian polytheist Horapollon made an unsuccessful attempt to decipher the hieroglyphs whose meanings had already been forgotten by that time.

Even after Christianity was officially introduced to Egypt, polytheistic artists were commissioned to build sepulchre

1- EFragments of wooden friezes adorned with the rich animal and plant life of the Nile: crocodiles, fish, birds, lotus flowers and vine leaves, 6th Century 2- Stone frieze decorated with scenes from the life of David, limestone, Dashlut, 6th Century 3- �e Greek goddess Daphne is turning into a laurel tree, limestone, probably from Ahnas, 4th/5th century Below - �e Greek god of wine, Dionysus, is presented with his com-panions, limestone, provenance unknown, 4th/5th century

25

1 2

3

24

Other Coptic motifs and technical practices are related to the artistic repertoire of Ancient Egypt: e.g. Nilotic scenes representing the rich animal and plant life at the banks of the river Nile, were once depicted on the walls of Phara-onic tombs and temples. In Coptic times, the same theme decorated wooden friezes set into the walls of sacral and secular buildings and was often applied to textiles. From the dawn of Egypt’s history down to the Coptic era, the Nile had played an important role in the life of the Egyptians and was used as a symbol to evoke prosperity and well-being.

Panels with geometrical paintings from the famous mon-astery of St. Apollo in Bawit imitate precious mosaics. The rendering of costly material and intricate techniques through painting had already been applied on Pharaonic funerary vessels.

Since early Christianity, there had been serious conflicts between Christian and polytheistic streams. But when Christianity was officially announced a state religion by the 4th century, pre-Christian beliefs were not completely

wiped out. Some striking textual documents from the 5th century describe Aba Shenute, one of the key figures in the establishment of the Coptic Church and among the most famous Coptic writers, as vehemently fighting polytheism. In the same century, the Egyptian polytheist Horapollon made an unsuccessful attempt to decipher the hieroglyphs whose meanings had already been forgotten by that time.

Even after Christianity was officially introduced to Egypt, polytheistic artists were commissioned to build sepulchre

1- EFragments of wooden friezes adorned with the rich animal and plant life of the Nile: crocodiles, fish, birds, lotus flowers and vine leaves, 6th Century 2- Stone frieze decorated with scenes from the life of David, limestone, Dashlut, 6th Century 3- �e Greek goddess Daphne is turning into a laurel tree, limestone, probably from Ahnas, 4th/5th century Below - �e Greek god of wine, Dionysus, is presented with his com-panions, limestone, provenance unknown, 4th/5th century

25

buildings and produce sculptures for Polytheists and Christians alike. But as the Christian religion was so en-tirely different from previous religious systems, polytheistic temples were either demolished or gradually Christianized, and the construction of new temples prohibited as they were regarded as clear signs of idolatry. The Roman Em-perors were the last rulers in Egypt to commission statuary supporting their polytheistic beliefs and state propaganda.

During the Coptic era, Egypt experienced the construc-tion of many Christian monasteries richly decorated with intricate column capitals, colourful friezes, niches and lin-tels. Episodes from the life of Christ, Virgin Mary and other stories from the Old and New Testament were painted or carved on walls. The Coptic artists gradually gained con-fidence in developing new art forms, the most remarkable of which are floral, vegetal and geometrical patterns. Many restoration and reconstruction works carried out over the centuries led to various architectural styles frequently en-countered in Coptic sacral buildings. The reuse of spolia from polytheistic structures was obviously not considered heretic and incorporated into the new Christian buildings either to evoke Egypt’s glorious past or as a clear token of

having defeated heresy.There are many other factors adding to the complex set-

ting of the Coptic Heritage. As a province of the Roman and subsequently Byzantine Empire, Egypt was exposed to for-eign influences as well as interactively connected to flour-ishing cities throughout the Mediterranean world. Alexan-dria developed into a prosperous metropolis and became a melting pot for intellectual thought, as well as ethnic and religious diversity. Alexandria’s harbour was integrated to the Mediterranean trade route and not only shipped tons of grain beyond Egypt’s borders, but also received precious products from various Mediterranean trade centers. Even architectural fragments like column capitals chiselled from marble were imported from Constantinople to be used as construction material or as architectural models.

Coptic artists travelled within the Mediterranean region and on returning, they added foreign styles and tech-niques to local construction. Foreigners also contributed to cross-cultural exchanges in Egypt, exemplified by an icon from the 17th century displayed at the Coptic Mu-seum and depicting the birth of Jesus with a reclining Vir-gin Mary in Greek style. The Coptic Museum has thousands of invaluable manuscripts written in Coptic, Arabic, Greek, Syriac, Old Nubian and Ethiopic some of which may have been produced by foreign monks in the scriptoria of Egypt’s monasteries, as well as the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi el Natrun.

With the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century, Egypt became exposed to Greek culture and life-style. When the Romans took over the rule in Egypt by 30 B.C., the country’s upper class consisted of Hellenized Egyptians, brought up bilingually, in Egyptian and Greek. The Egyptian elite was proud of its Greek education and had numerous Coptic textiles decorated with warriors, dancers, men on horseback, Greek gods and heroes rep-resented in Greek style. Stories from the Greek mythology found their way into Coptic art, e.g. Dionysius, the Greek god of wine, depicted with his companions, or the birth of the Greek goddess Aphrodite born from the foam of the sea and transported to land on a shell that turned into a Coptic symbol of resurrection and rebirth. The Roman intermezzo in Egypt also left clear traces in the Coptic art,

1

26

testified by some of the displayed artifacts at the Coptic Museum. Roman prototypes like the eagle as a symbol of the ruler’s majesty and the laurel wreath symbolizing victory became popular Coptic motifs and was applied to stone, wood and textile to represent the majesty of Christ and the victory of the Christian church.

Differences in quality of Coptic artifacts shed light on the economic situation of the people for whom these objects were made. The majority of Egyptians had limited finan-cial means and were not able to order luxury products, but instead ordered less expensive fabrications. Yet, the contents of simple items can also be very expressive: e.g. a grave stone at the Coptic Museum is decorated rather coarsely with a relief representing the ascension of Christ by a cross and steps and testifies that even plain art suc-cessfully managed to convey the Christian message. Look-

ing at such an item from the angle of the believer who was surely more concerned about its content than form, one begins to realize how precious this grave stone must have been for its owner. Regardless of the object’s value, every-one, rich and poor, shared the same hope of a life in eter-nity and would express it with his or her available means.

Numerous other objects reveal fascinating aspects of Coptic Egypt and enrich the display at the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo that houses the finest collection of Coptic ar-tifacts in the world. With the Arab conquest, Egypt entered a new era with profound changes that gradually paved the

1- Painted panel from the Monastery of St. Apollo, Bawit Below -Piece of tapestry made of linen and wool and decorated with figures in Greek style, 4th to 5th CenturyAll photos are courtesy of the SCA

27

buildings and produce sculptures for Polytheists and Christians alike. But as the Christian religion was so en-tirely different from previous religious systems, polytheistic temples were either demolished or gradually Christianized, and the construction of new temples prohibited as they were regarded as clear signs of idolatry. The Roman Em-perors were the last rulers in Egypt to commission statuary supporting their polytheistic beliefs and state propaganda.

During the Coptic era, Egypt experienced the construc-tion of many Christian monasteries richly decorated with intricate column capitals, colourful friezes, niches and lin-tels. Episodes from the life of Christ, Virgin Mary and other stories from the Old and New Testament were painted or carved on walls. The Coptic artists gradually gained con-fidence in developing new art forms, the most remarkable of which are floral, vegetal and geometrical patterns. Many restoration and reconstruction works carried out over the centuries led to various architectural styles frequently en-countered in Coptic sacral buildings. The reuse of spolia from polytheistic structures was obviously not considered heretic and incorporated into the new Christian buildings either to evoke Egypt’s glorious past or as a clear token of

having defeated heresy.There are many other factors adding to the complex set-

ting of the Coptic Heritage. As a province of the Roman and subsequently Byzantine Empire, Egypt was exposed to for-eign influences as well as interactively connected to flour-ishing cities throughout the Mediterranean world. Alexan-dria developed into a prosperous metropolis and became a melting pot for intellectual thought, as well as ethnic and religious diversity. Alexandria’s harbour was integrated to the Mediterranean trade route and not only shipped tons of grain beyond Egypt’s borders, but also received precious products from various Mediterranean trade centers. Even architectural fragments like column capitals chiselled from marble were imported from Constantinople to be used as construction material or as architectural models.

Coptic artists travelled within the Mediterranean region and on returning, they added foreign styles and tech-niques to local construction. Foreigners also contributed to cross-cultural exchanges in Egypt, exemplified by an icon from the 17th century displayed at the Coptic Mu-seum and depicting the birth of Jesus with a reclining Vir-gin Mary in Greek style. The Coptic Museum has thousands of invaluable manuscripts written in Coptic, Arabic, Greek, Syriac, Old Nubian and Ethiopic some of which may have been produced by foreign monks in the scriptoria of Egypt’s monasteries, as well as the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi el Natrun.

With the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century, Egypt became exposed to Greek culture and life-style. When the Romans took over the rule in Egypt by 30 B.C., the country’s upper class consisted of Hellenized Egyptians, brought up bilingually, in Egyptian and Greek. The Egyptian elite was proud of its Greek education and had numerous Coptic textiles decorated with warriors, dancers, men on horseback, Greek gods and heroes rep-resented in Greek style. Stories from the Greek mythology found their way into Coptic art, e.g. Dionysius, the Greek god of wine, depicted with his companions, or the birth of the Greek goddess Aphrodite born from the foam of the sea and transported to land on a shell that turned into a Coptic symbol of resurrection and rebirth. The Roman intermezzo in Egypt also left clear traces in the Coptic art,

1

26

testified by some of the displayed artifacts at the Coptic Museum. Roman prototypes like the eagle as a symbol of the ruler’s majesty and the laurel wreath symbolizing victory became popular Coptic motifs and was applied to stone, wood and textile to represent the majesty of Christ and the victory of the Christian church.

Differences in quality of Coptic artifacts shed light on the economic situation of the people for whom these objects were made. The majority of Egyptians had limited finan-cial means and were not able to order luxury products, but instead ordered less expensive fabrications. Yet, the contents of simple items can also be very expressive: e.g. a grave stone at the Coptic Museum is decorated rather coarsely with a relief representing the ascension of Christ by a cross and steps and testifies that even plain art suc-cessfully managed to convey the Christian message. Look-

ing at such an item from the angle of the believer who was surely more concerned about its content than form, one begins to realize how precious this grave stone must have been for its owner. Regardless of the object’s value, every-one, rich and poor, shared the same hope of a life in eter-nity and would express it with his or her available means.

Numerous other objects reveal fascinating aspects of Coptic Egypt and enrich the display at the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo that houses the finest collection of Coptic ar-tifacts in the world. With the Arab conquest, Egypt entered a new era with profound changes that gradually paved the

1- Painted panel from the Monastery of St. Apollo, Bawit Below -Piece of tapestry made of linen and wool and decorated with figures in Greek style, 4th to 5th CenturyAll photos are courtesy of the SCA

27

E DWhen Mohamed Ali was HOT!

28Dancing Girls at Cairo / David Roberts Circa 1846

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E DWhen Mohamed Ali was HOT!

28Dancing Girls at Cairo / David Roberts Circa 1846

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In Cairo, the origin of many of the unusual names of streets, alleyways or thoroughfares is fairly straightfor-ward and the Egyptian capital is filled with street and

place names that offer insights into a particular trade - Al Nahassein (the coppersmiths), Souk Al Selah (the arms’ market) - or remembers a legendary figure – Amir al Giy-ushi, Saad Zaghloul for instance.

In a particularly curious twist, the long artery that starts at the foot of the Citadel and stretches up to Midan El-Ataba combines the historic figure of the great Mohamed Ali Pasha with that of a very special trade. Until recently, Mohamed Ali Street was known as the ghetto of musi-cians, dancers and street performers. “I would set all the entertainment for weddings from here,” confesses Hamdi, a retired Monteg (producer) sucking heavily on his shisha and puffing away, like a dragon, long streams of smoke through his nostrils. So how exactly did the name of the great Wali of Masr, the man who spent his lifetime modern-izing Egypt, become associated with such a trade?

One of the largest cities in the Middle East, Cairo was the heartland of the Arab World and a prolific destination for scholars, merchants, travellers as well as adventurers. In fact, 19th century Cairo was no longer the walled and gat-ed city of Al Hakem Bi Amr Allah, the Fatimid Khalif who ruled Egypt and who, according to legend, ordered women not to leave their homes, and ordered the shoemakers not to make women’s shoes. The sheer scale of development and modernisation undertaken by Mohamed Ali Pasha, and his successors, made Cairo a particularly great loca-tion for those who enjoyed being in the thick of action and lead a versatile lifestyle.

Writing about Cairo in the early decades of the 1800s, the Egyptian historian and chronicler Al Jabarti described Cairo as “a country of gazelles, or a paradise peopled with houris and mignons and the inhabitants drank with avid-ity from the eye of delight.”

Three hundred years of Ottoman rule (1517-1805) had transformed Cairo to a provincial capital where culture and society stagnated. Nevertheless, the new lifestyle was to change the character of the city and that of its inhabit-ants. The Turks and Circassians of the new military and ruling elite were very wealthy beys and merchants who built palatial houses overlooking the Ezbekiya Lake, while others built ostentatious compounds at the very foot of the Citadel. Hidden behind the high walls of their palaces, the

1, 2, 3 - A variety of late 19th and early 20th century postcards of Egyptian “Awalem” and “Ghawazee”opposite - “La Danse de l’almée Aïoucha au café Egyptien de la rue du Caire,” Adrien Marie: Le Monde illustré, 3 Aug 1889, 73

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In Cairo, the origin of many of the unusual names of streets, alleyways or thoroughfares is fairly straightfor-ward and the Egyptian capital is filled with street and

place names that offer insights into a particular trade - Al Nahassein (the coppersmiths), Souk Al Selah (the arms’ market) - or remembers a legendary figure – Amir al Giy-ushi, Saad Zaghloul for instance.

In a particularly curious twist, the long artery that starts at the foot of the Citadel and stretches up to Midan El-Ataba combines the historic figure of the great Mohamed Ali Pasha with that of a very special trade. Until recently, Mohamed Ali Street was known as the ghetto of musi-cians, dancers and street performers. “I would set all the entertainment for weddings from here,” confesses Hamdi, a retired Monteg (producer) sucking heavily on his shisha and puffing away, like a dragon, long streams of smoke through his nostrils. So how exactly did the name of the great Wali of Masr, the man who spent his lifetime modern-izing Egypt, become associated with such a trade?

One of the largest cities in the Middle East, Cairo was the heartland of the Arab World and a prolific destination for scholars, merchants, travellers as well as adventurers. In fact, 19th century Cairo was no longer the walled and gat-ed city of Al Hakem Bi Amr Allah, the Fatimid Khalif who ruled Egypt and who, according to legend, ordered women not to leave their homes, and ordered the shoemakers not to make women’s shoes. The sheer scale of development and modernisation undertaken by Mohamed Ali Pasha, and his successors, made Cairo a particularly great loca-tion for those who enjoyed being in the thick of action and lead a versatile lifestyle.

Writing about Cairo in the early decades of the 1800s, the Egyptian historian and chronicler Al Jabarti described Cairo as “a country of gazelles, or a paradise peopled with houris and mignons and the inhabitants drank with avid-ity from the eye of delight.”

Three hundred years of Ottoman rule (1517-1805) had transformed Cairo to a provincial capital where culture and society stagnated. Nevertheless, the new lifestyle was to change the character of the city and that of its inhabit-ants. The Turks and Circassians of the new military and ruling elite were very wealthy beys and merchants who built palatial houses overlooking the Ezbekiya Lake, while others built ostentatious compounds at the very foot of the Citadel. Hidden behind the high walls of their palaces, the

1, 2, 3 - A variety of late 19th and early 20th century postcards of Egyptian “Awalem” and “Ghawazee”opposite - “La Danse de l’almée Aïoucha au café Egyptien de la rue du Caire,” Adrien Marie: Le Monde illustré, 3 Aug 1889, 73

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wealthy elite lived a life of luxury, pleasure and promiscuity. Soon, the city became a key destination for artists, musi-

cians, poets and writers where visitors would traditionally enjoy the very best talents in the entire region

Among the new cultural trends brought in from Istanbul - the capital of the Ottoman Empire - was that of women singers and dancers. Although dancers existed in Egypt since the time of the pharaohs, as depicted on Egyptian tomb paintings dating from as far back as the fourteenth century BC, a new variation was soon introduced. Putting aside the sacred, classical expression of prayer through the language of the body practiced in the past in temples, dancing moved into a profane occupation. With belly-dancing, believed to have been introduced to Egypt by the Turks, two types of women performers – the Alma and the Ghaziya - soon took over the central stage of entertain-ment, pleasure and enjoyment.

The word Alma meant a “learned woman” and the term referred above all to a woman who was knowledgeable in dance, poetry and music. The “Awalim” (plural) performed only in the harem and were never made visible to the male members of the household. The men lounging in the vast ka’a of the house could listen to the Alma reciting poetry or singing, hidden behind a lattice screen, but could not see her.

Whereas the Awalim were admired and respected, the Ghawazee (singular Ghaziya) who performed mainly in public, in the streets, in front of coffee-houses at weddings

and mawalid, were not considered “respectable” because they danced unveiled. Though they would never be admit-ted into the “respectable” harem of the beys and pashas, the Ghawazee would perform there on festive occasions. For their performance, the Ghawazee were not paid as handsomely as the Awalim, nevertheless some became very rich and stopped dancing to set up their own enter-tainment business, employing younger Ghawazee. And

2

1

How exactly did the name of the great Wali of Masr, the man who spent his lifetime to modernize Egypt, become associated with such a trade?

1-“Dancing Girl” Photo: David Gardner, from: De Guerville, A. B. “New Egypt” Published in 19062-”Mohamed Ali Street” postcard circa 189003-�e dancers of “El Dorado” the famous cabaret where Shafika El Copteya rose to fame in the 1920s

32

if ever they were to entertain a party of men, this would either be in a house of “ill repute” or later on board the dahabeyas or awamas (houseboats). Dancing and singing had moved from the streets to café-chantants and later to theatres and by that time the word Alma had also taken on the meaning of dancer-prostitute.

It is said that, embarrassed by the presence of the Awalim and especially that of the Ghawazee who also offered servic-es “in kind” to the cohorts of their male admirers, Mohamed Ali Pasha taxed them and banned them from Cairo in 1834.

But you don’t fool with Awalims, and when Khedive Ismail allowed these “learned” artists back into Cairo in 1860 but taxed them, they callously set up shop in Mo-hamed Ali Street. “In a way, that was their revenge.” says Ali Al Hallaj, a barber and one of the oldest inhabitants of present day Mohamed Ali Street.

Ali has seen it all. From the raks shama’adan, or the candelabra dance, to the rising of stars like Sabrine; “She lived here, just above my shop. She was a good performer and a very decent girl,” says Ali. Believed to have been introduced from Turkey, the candelabra dance consists mainly of a dancer performing with a purpose-built cande-labra (with lit candles) worn on her head. But Ali dismisses the Turkish link. “This is rubbish. It’s that great Lebanese belly-dancer and nightclub owner Badia Masabni who in-vented the dance at her cabaret, not far away from here, on Ibrahim Pasha Square,” affirms Ali Al Hallaj. The Turkish origin of raks shama’adan is also contested by Um Hanan, a retired Alma who runs a belly dancing school opposite Ali’s barbershop. She claims that the dance was originally invented in Mohamed Ali Street by Zouba el Klobatiyya, a klob meaning a lantern. Another famous Mohamed Ali Street Alma who performed raks shama’adan was Hayat “Nagafa” (Nagafa also meaning candelabra) and her young-er sister Enayat. Both sisters were renowned for their per-formance of raks shamadan. Not to forget the most famous rags-to-rich-then-to rags, Shafika al Copteya.

The musicians and dancers, who formed the majority of the residents, an array of instrumentalists, music shops, tailors and costume designers, moved to the street. Es-tablishing dozens of workshops and ateliers, the costume designers, in particular, made small fortunes competing to design more and more glittery and sophisticated cos-tumes. In the 19th century, costumes were very differ-ent and extremely simple. Ghawazee in particular were dressed in long colourful robes worn over silk pantaloons (sirwals) and tied a piece of cloth or a lavishly embroidered shawl around their hips. Today’s midriff-baring two-piece costume, which consists of a sequined bra and a long flow-

3

33

wealthy elite lived a life of luxury, pleasure and promiscuity. Soon, the city became a key destination for artists, musi-

cians, poets and writers where visitors would traditionally enjoy the very best talents in the entire region

Among the new cultural trends brought in from Istanbul - the capital of the Ottoman Empire - was that of women singers and dancers. Although dancers existed in Egypt since the time of the pharaohs, as depicted on Egyptian tomb paintings dating from as far back as the fourteenth century BC, a new variation was soon introduced. Putting aside the sacred, classical expression of prayer through the language of the body practiced in the past in temples, dancing moved into a profane occupation. With belly-dancing, believed to have been introduced to Egypt by the Turks, two types of women performers – the Alma and the Ghaziya - soon took over the central stage of entertain-ment, pleasure and enjoyment.

The word Alma meant a “learned woman” and the term referred above all to a woman who was knowledgeable in dance, poetry and music. The “Awalim” (plural) performed only in the harem and were never made visible to the male members of the household. The men lounging in the vast ka’a of the house could listen to the Alma reciting poetry or singing, hidden behind a lattice screen, but could not see her.

Whereas the Awalim were admired and respected, the Ghawazee (singular Ghaziya) who performed mainly in public, in the streets, in front of coffee-houses at weddings

and mawalid, were not considered “respectable” because they danced unveiled. Though they would never be admit-ted into the “respectable” harem of the beys and pashas, the Ghawazee would perform there on festive occasions. For their performance, the Ghawazee were not paid as handsomely as the Awalim, nevertheless some became very rich and stopped dancing to set up their own enter-tainment business, employing younger Ghawazee. And

2

1

How exactly did the name of the great Wali of Masr, the man who spent his lifetime to modernize Egypt, become associated with such a trade?

1-“Dancing Girl” Photo: David Gardner, from: De Guerville, A. B. “New Egypt” Published in 19062-”Mohamed Ali Street” postcard circa 189003-�e dancers of “El Dorado” the famous cabaret where Shafika El Copteya rose to fame in the 1920s

32

if ever they were to entertain a party of men, this would either be in a house of “ill repute” or later on board the dahabeyas or awamas (houseboats). Dancing and singing had moved from the streets to café-chantants and later to theatres and by that time the word Alma had also taken on the meaning of dancer-prostitute.

It is said that, embarrassed by the presence of the Awalim and especially that of the Ghawazee who also offered servic-es “in kind” to the cohorts of their male admirers, Mohamed Ali Pasha taxed them and banned them from Cairo in 1834.

But you don’t fool with Awalims, and when Khedive Ismail allowed these “learned” artists back into Cairo in 1860 but taxed them, they callously set up shop in Mo-hamed Ali Street. “In a way, that was their revenge.” says Ali Al Hallaj, a barber and one of the oldest inhabitants of present day Mohamed Ali Street.

Ali has seen it all. From the raks shama’adan, or the candelabra dance, to the rising of stars like Sabrine; “She lived here, just above my shop. She was a good performer and a very decent girl,” says Ali. Believed to have been introduced from Turkey, the candelabra dance consists mainly of a dancer performing with a purpose-built cande-labra (with lit candles) worn on her head. But Ali dismisses the Turkish link. “This is rubbish. It’s that great Lebanese belly-dancer and nightclub owner Badia Masabni who in-vented the dance at her cabaret, not far away from here, on Ibrahim Pasha Square,” affirms Ali Al Hallaj. The Turkish origin of raks shama’adan is also contested by Um Hanan, a retired Alma who runs a belly dancing school opposite Ali’s barbershop. She claims that the dance was originally invented in Mohamed Ali Street by Zouba el Klobatiyya, a klob meaning a lantern. Another famous Mohamed Ali Street Alma who performed raks shama’adan was Hayat “Nagafa” (Nagafa also meaning candelabra) and her young-er sister Enayat. Both sisters were renowned for their per-formance of raks shamadan. Not to forget the most famous rags-to-rich-then-to rags, Shafika al Copteya.

The musicians and dancers, who formed the majority of the residents, an array of instrumentalists, music shops, tailors and costume designers, moved to the street. Es-tablishing dozens of workshops and ateliers, the costume designers, in particular, made small fortunes competing to design more and more glittery and sophisticated cos-tumes. In the 19th century, costumes were very differ-ent and extremely simple. Ghawazee in particular were dressed in long colourful robes worn over silk pantaloons (sirwals) and tied a piece of cloth or a lavishly embroidered shawl around their hips. Today’s midriff-baring two-piece costume, which consists of a sequined bra and a long flow-

3

33

ing skirt sitting on the hips, made its appearance only in the 1930s, through the film industry.

In conservative societies, as in Egypt, female dancing is considered the most shameful form of entertainment, be-cause of its “alleged sensual undertone” and because it is wrongly linked with prostitution, especially if the girls perform in nightclubs and cabarets. Hisham, who moved away from the world of entertainment to set up a small transport company, admits that often entertainers and es-pecially dancers are viewed as “disreputable people” and even if they become famous, earn a lot of money, marry and move up the social ladder, “the stain remains on them, because they have traded their bodies.” However, he reck-ons that Egyptians are biased and the stigma refers only to female entertainers who, as dancers, have always been considered to be engaged in a dishonorable conduct, while male entertainers are viewed as simply “making a living.”

His discourteous comments are rejected by Um Mo-hamed, nicknamed Otta (Cat) a retired Alma in her late 70s, who adds, “you are quick to condemn us, but when we dance, you enjoy us, don’t you? Dancing was my only means of livelihood, and if I was so bad, I wouldn’t be beg-ging here today on this pavement, I would be a big shot in Sharia Al Haram, or own a large villa with a swimming pool in Al Mansoureya.”

For almost 20 years now, dancers and musicians have deserted Mohamed Ali Street. A handful of ageing Awalim still continue to hold the fort, but not for long. The street that has seen the rise of belly dancers like Kuchuk Hanim, Safia of Esna, Hosna El-Tawila or Shafika, is now the hub of locally made cheap furniture. As one walks through the famous arcades that were the trademark of Mohamed Ali Street, one comes across shops and more shop of wooden furniture. “If in the past, 90% of the street was taken by the entertainment business, today 90% of the street is fur-niture shops and unemployed sa’alkis (good-for-nothings)” says Hanafi who adds philosophically; “why cry over spilt milk? What is gone is gone, and life should continue. The Awalim of Mohamed Ali Street had their days of glory. Now, maybe it’s the turn of the “mo’alemin of mobelia.”

1- Newspaper ad: “ The best and happiest of events held by the elite families of Egypt are those where the famous Anissa El Mas-reyya and her sister Nabaweyya perform. Don’t forget to call them for all your parties. Address: AlManasra alley number 80, off Mohamed Ali Street, Egypt.2- Mohamed Ali street, late 19th century postcard3-The famous candelabra dance featured on a postcard, circa 1850.

34 35

ing skirt sitting on the hips, made its appearance only in the 1930s, through the film industry.

In conservative societies, as in Egypt, female dancing is considered the most shameful form of entertainment, be-cause of its “alleged sensual undertone” and because it is wrongly linked with prostitution, especially if the girls perform in nightclubs and cabarets. Hisham, who moved away from the world of entertainment to set up a small transport company, admits that often entertainers and es-pecially dancers are viewed as “disreputable people” and even if they become famous, earn a lot of money, marry and move up the social ladder, “the stain remains on them, because they have traded their bodies.” However, he reck-ons that Egyptians are biased and the stigma refers only to female entertainers who, as dancers, have always been considered to be engaged in a dishonorable conduct, while male entertainers are viewed as simply “making a living.”

His discourteous comments are rejected by Um Mo-hamed, nicknamed Otta (Cat) a retired Alma in her late 70s, who adds, “you are quick to condemn us, but when we dance, you enjoy us, don’t you? Dancing was my only means of livelihood, and if I was so bad, I wouldn’t be beg-ging here today on this pavement, I would be a big shot in Sharia Al Haram, or own a large villa with a swimming pool in Al Mansoureya.”

For almost 20 years now, dancers and musicians have deserted Mohamed Ali Street. A handful of ageing Awalim still continue to hold the fort, but not for long. The street that has seen the rise of belly dancers like Kuchuk Hanim, Safia of Esna, Hosna El-Tawila or Shafika, is now the hub of locally made cheap furniture. As one walks through the famous arcades that were the trademark of Mohamed Ali Street, one comes across shops and more shop of wooden furniture. “If in the past, 90% of the street was taken by the entertainment business, today 90% of the street is fur-niture shops and unemployed sa’alkis (good-for-nothings)” says Hanafi who adds philosophically; “why cry over spilt milk? What is gone is gone, and life should continue. The Awalim of Mohamed Ali Street had their days of glory. Now, maybe it’s the turn of the “mo’alemin of mobelia.”

1- Newspaper ad: “ The best and happiest of events held by the elite families of Egypt are those where the famous Anissa El Mas-reyya and her sister Nabaweyya perform. Don’t forget to call them for all your parties. Address: AlManasra alley number 80, off Mohamed Ali Street, Egypt.2- Mohamed Ali street, late 19th century postcard3-The famous candelabra dance featured on a postcard, circa 1850.

34 35

36

Going, Going ... GoneHERITAGE AT RISK

once upon a time, Egypt thrived with wildlife; from grazing antelopes to big cat predators. Prehistoric rock art of El Gilf El Kebir leaves you mesmerized

with gazelle hunting scenes and numerous depictions of giraffe, ibex and monkey. Closer in time, the Ancient Egyptian temples reveal equally hypnotizing drawings and paintings, this time of lions and hippos. But today’s hu-mans lack the capacity to appreciate nature, and as their technology advances, their greed grows out of control. Mo-

torized vehicles and rifle guns dealt its irreversible extinc-tion blow; our wildlife is on its death bed. The once adored and famous cheetahs of Ancient Egyptian courts are now reduced to nothing but a beautiful golden mask, a token we contemplate with awe.

But the show is not over yet, and a few species are hang-ing in the balance. Will we intervene and save them, or will they become just another memory. Just like the cheetahs, but this time with no golden masks showcased to the world.

W M E HW M E H

�e Last of the Egyptian

Wilds

The Barbary Sheep

37

Dorcas gazelle: Flee...flee...fleeJust 60 years ago, this elegantly beautiful creature

roamed the Egyptian deserts in herds that easily entered the hundreds. Now, if you encounter a congregation of three, consider yourself lucky. Poaching and habitat deg-radation are the main culprits. Those were also the same reasons how other antelopes, like much larger Addax and Scimitar Oryx, have completely vanished from the Egyptian map. Legally protected throughout its geographical Sahara

range, Dorcas gazelle enjoy some degree of protection liv-ing in national parks and reserves. However, the protec-tion is far from flawless and illegal hunting still occurs. In Egypt, Dorcas gazelle can be spotted in three natural protectorates; Wadi El Gemal, Elba and St. Catherine’s. Nevertheless, this innocent creature has long been hunted and it has grown weary of human beings; getting closer to one in a four-wheel drive is next to impossible. This leaves the guarding rangers with a very difficult job to do.

The African Wild ass

36

Going, Going ... GoneHERITAGE AT RISK

once upon a time, Egypt thrived with wildlife; from grazing antelopes to big cat predators. Prehistoric rock art of El Gilf El Kebir leaves you mesmerized

with gazelle hunting scenes and numerous depictions of giraffe, ibex and monkey. Closer in time, the Ancient Egyptian temples reveal equally hypnotizing drawings and paintings, this time of lions and hippos. But today’s hu-mans lack the capacity to appreciate nature, and as their technology advances, their greed grows out of control. Mo-

torized vehicles and rifle guns dealt its irreversible extinc-tion blow; our wildlife is on its death bed. The once adored and famous cheetahs of Ancient Egyptian courts are now reduced to nothing but a beautiful golden mask, a token we contemplate with awe.

But the show is not over yet, and a few species are hang-ing in the balance. Will we intervene and save them, or will they become just another memory. Just like the cheetahs, but this time with no golden masks showcased to the world.

W M E HW M E H

�e Last of the Egyptian

Wilds

The Barbary Sheep

37

Dorcas gazelle: Flee...flee...fleeJust 60 years ago, this elegantly beautiful creature

roamed the Egyptian deserts in herds that easily entered the hundreds. Now, if you encounter a congregation of three, consider yourself lucky. Poaching and habitat deg-radation are the main culprits. Those were also the same reasons how other antelopes, like much larger Addax and Scimitar Oryx, have completely vanished from the Egyptian map. Legally protected throughout its geographical Sahara

range, Dorcas gazelle enjoy some degree of protection liv-ing in national parks and reserves. However, the protec-tion is far from flawless and illegal hunting still occurs. In Egypt, Dorcas gazelle can be spotted in three natural protectorates; Wadi El Gemal, Elba and St. Catherine’s. Nevertheless, this innocent creature has long been hunted and it has grown weary of human beings; getting closer to one in a four-wheel drive is next to impossible. This leaves the guarding rangers with a very difficult job to do.

The African Wild ass

38

Dorcas gazelle has a cuddly look, a look that automati-cally intrigues the affectionate side of you, but behind the beautiful face lies a very resilient creature; one that can tolerate the harshest of desert conditions. To acclimatize to the lack of water, Dorcas gazelle can go for extended periods of time without drinking depending solely on the moisture they obtain from their herbivorous diet.

African wild ass: Is that you?At first sight, it appears like a very ordinary donkey, and

somehow, it is not very far from one. The African wild ass is believed to be the ancestor of today’s donkey. Nonethe-less, and contrary to its domesticated fellow, African wild ass is still struggling for freedom in the wild. In its Red List for endangered species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has categorized the Afri-can wild ass as “Critically Endangered” with an immedi-

ate SOS to save the last few who survive in the wild. Unlike Dorcas gazelle, this sub-tle looking creature fears a different set of threats. Desertification, interbreeding with domestic donkeys as well as hunting for folk medicine are about all the reasons why Afri-can Wild ass is spiraling towards extinction. With two subspecies hanging by the thread, only the Nubian one claims geographical range that includes the southwest corner of Egypt; mainly round the Jebel Elba re-gion. However, this area is populated with Bishari nomads and they heavily depend on donkeys in their daily lives; interbreeding is imminent. This leaves us with a simple yet difficult question to answer; is the pictured creature a true African wild ass or just a native donkey gone feral? To further com-plicate matters, the physical description of

the photographed couple show the marking of an African wild ass, note the dark strip across the back and shoulder. At the same time the cut ear-tip may reflect a tribal marking.

Barbary Sheep: The king is deadWithout a doubt, it is the King of the Mountains; its re-

markable jumping and cliff navigation abilities are just unrivalled. Unfortunately, the King is dead. Or at least this is what I personally encountered when I last visited El Gilf El Kebir. The colossal plateau is believed to be one of the Barbary Sheep’s last remaining strongholds, but when I searched for any individuals, I found none, seldom a car-cass. Could there be a surviving population?

Once freely roaming the entire Sahara desert, Barbary Sheep are now confined to small and scattered pockets. Poaching is the primary reason for the recurring tragedy of extinction. Another demonstration of man’s greed, Barbary Sheep were, and to a certain extent still are, relentlessly hunted; a much sought-after prize for its meat. Protecting laws are indeed in place, but once again, they are rarely implemented. And when you think of the difficult terrain

2

The Dorcas Gazelle

39

this large sheep calls home, the poorly equipped rangers are left with little to be done. However, and after all said and done, there is one piece of good news when it comes to King of the Mountains. For a long time this amazing creature was thought to be extinct in Egypt, or least in the Eastern Desert; recently, evidence of surviving individu-als were gathered from around Jebel Elba. The King might just be returning.

Lappet-faced Vulture: Beauty in disguiseA bald, unattractive-looking scavenger is not anybody’s

idea of a beautiful bird. But, if you look deeper behind the cliché, the Lappet-faced vulture is a beautiful bird to be-hold. Pause for a minute and contemplate the photograph.

Spreading throughout most of Arabia and the African continent as well, this big Old World vulture is suffering prosecution of a different kind. Its killer is actually a medi-cine! Some anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat livestock

remains in the cattle’s blood. If the unfortunate patient doesn’t make it, and the vulture comes to feed on the car-cass, the medicine remnants will be powerful enough to poison the innocent bird. Indeed it sounds surreal but it is a sad story of how humans rarely think of chain re-actions and how the environment is actually an endless labyrinth of intertwining connections. Luckily for the Lap-pet-faced vulture in Egypt, this killing medicine is not on the rise; however, another killer is. Con-centrated in the far southeast corner of the country, nomadic herders of-ten accuse the vultures of catching their newly born livestock. In reality, Lappet-faced vultures are often, if not always, innocent; it depends largely on scavenging, while hunting is quite a rarity.

The Lappet-Faced Vulture

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Pierre Sioufi, Retired Journalist

“I took this photo in Assiut. I must say I didn’t know what to look at when I saw this build-ing should I concentrate on the nice and doubtlessly origi-nal sign of the Salon Freuin? Or at the near post modern decor of Gezaret Mokhtar ... doubtlessly original 1960’s or maybe even 50’s ...., the lovely remains of the once amazing building or the no less original doctor’s table taking the sun in the veranda!”

Many of us walk through the streets of Egypt and find ourselves captivated by the most incredible sights. People from all backgrounds and professions have taken up photogra-phy either as amateurs or as professionals in order to document the many scenes of Egypt. Here, we invite you, our reader, to submit your photographs of Egyptian heritage and your thoughts. Tell us what you want to say with your photograph, tell us of the story behind the shot: simply express yourself. Get in touch with us by emailing: editor@turath-egypt.com

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Ahmed Salah, Engineer“This bank has attacked one of Cairo’s most beautiful

buildings and plastered their sign OVER its unique orna-mentation. Only one side remains now!! Why has no local authority objected to this?!”

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Sherif Lotfy, Engineer“The minarets of El Nasser Mohamed

Ebn Qalawun’s and El Mansour Qala-wun complexes embracing each other.”

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Pacinthe Abu Senna, student at MIU, faculty of AlsunPhoto 1: “I took this one in Sultan Hassan Mosque. It shows the windows of a

hospital that used to be in the Mosque itself. I just liked how a mosque was not a place only or prayer, but also for many other purposes like learning or taking care of the sick..”

Photo 2: “This photo I shot in El Refaei Mosque and I just liked how the sun dem-

onstrated the fabulous architecture of the window.” Photo 3: “This one is of Sultan Hassan Mosque. It shows the ablution area locat-

ed in the centre. I really liked how the rays of the sun were cast on a place where people purified themselves and got ready to meet God.”

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With this issue, we are cel-ebrating the one-year an-niversary of the publication

of Turath: Egypt’s Heritage Review. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines heritage as “something transmitted by or acquired from a predecessor: legacy, inheritance or tradition.” With this definition in mind, I am reminded of the mission behind the creation of

this magazine, as expressed in the Ed-itor’s Note of the inaugural issue: “...a heritage review covering Egypt’s his-tory from all eras and in all its kinds.” And with this definition, I would like to share with you a dying tradition that is being revived by a very deter-mined woman.

Far from the city of Cairo is the NADIM showroom and factory, tucked

away in the industrial zone of Abu Rawash. NADIM is known for its fur-niture inspired by traditional and “Is-lamic” designs featuring carved and turned wood, as well as inlay using different materials. There are also contemporary collections for custom-ers and clients that have more modern tastes. Little be it known that under the Traditional Art subsidiary, NADIM

Shimmering in

andThe legendary Tahia Carioca, along with her dancers, wearing traditional belly dance suits

I R. A

45

has branched into , a form of embroi-dery. Before I go into further details regarding the art of , it would be pru-dent to introduce you to Dr. Nawal el-Messiri, the protagonist in this story.

You may recognize her name from the books she has authored, the work she has carried out with her hus-band, Dr. Asaad Nadim, at Bayt al-Suhaymi, and finally as co-founder and honorary chairperson of NADIM. In fact, Dr. el-Messiri comes from an entrepreneurial family that is steeped in the textile and weaving industry of Egypt. Her grandfather, Ali el-Messiri, started a textile factory in Mahalla that specialized in kaftans. The facto-ry was passed down to his son and is currently being managed by the third generation of Messiris. An anthropolo-gist by training (Dr. el-Messiri received her PhD in Urban Anthropology from the University of Indiana where she wrote her dissertation on the area of Darb al-Ahmar in Historic Cairo), her research focuses on traditional urban life, folk art and the sustainability of the craft industry in Egypt. She ap-plies her academic background and business skills to the development and revival of .

is a specific type of embroidery us-ing tinsel originally made of pure gold and silver thread that is traditionally associated with the Upper Egyptian governorates of Assiut and Sohag. Dr. el-Messiri explained that is a reference to the thread, the type of embroidery and the finished product. The earliest reference to , according to Dr. el-Mes-siri, dates to the eighteenth century. Not exclusive to Egypt, the art can also be found in countries of the Gulf and India, where it is embroidered on Saris. What distinguishes Egyptian , however, from that found elsewhere is the subject matter and iconogra-phy. Here, motifs that are integral to life in Upper Egypt are common such

Candle Sticks

Sift

Headband Amulet

Comb

Ewer

Palm Reed

Brides

Decorative Squares

Innovative Cross

Bride in Bed

Guard

Groom on Camel

Ewer Variation

Flower

Camel for Holy Curtain (Mahmal)

Stars

The legendary Tahia Carioca, along with her dancers, wearing traditional belly dance suits

45

has branched into , a form of embroi-dery. Before I go into further details regarding the art of , it would be pru-dent to introduce you to Dr. Nawal el-Messiri, the protagonist in this story.

You may recognize her name from the books she has authored, the work she has carried out with her hus-band, Dr. Asaad Nadim, at Bayt al-Suhaymi, and finally as co-founder and honorary chairperson of NADIM. In fact, Dr. el-Messiri comes from an entrepreneurial family that is steeped in the textile and weaving industry of Egypt. Her grandfather, Ali el-Messiri, started a textile factory in Mahalla that specialized in kaftans. The facto-ry was passed down to his son and is currently being managed by the third generation of Messiris. An anthropolo-gist by training (Dr. el-Messiri received her PhD in Urban Anthropology from the University of Indiana where she wrote her dissertation on the area of Darb al-Ahmar in Historic Cairo), her research focuses on traditional urban life, folk art and the sustainability of the craft industry in Egypt. She ap-plies her academic background and business skills to the development and revival of .

is a specific type of embroidery us-ing tinsel originally made of pure gold and silver thread that is traditionally associated with the Upper Egyptian governorates of Assiut and Sohag. Dr. el-Messiri explained that is a reference to the thread, the type of embroidery and the finished product. The earliest reference to , according to Dr. el-Mes-siri, dates to the eighteenth century. Not exclusive to Egypt, the art can also be found in countries of the Gulf and India, where it is embroidered on Saris. What distinguishes Egyptian , however, from that found elsewhere is the subject matter and iconogra-phy. Here, motifs that are integral to life in Upper Egypt are common such

Candle Sticks

Sift

Headband Amulet

Comb

Ewer

Palm Reed

Brides

Decorative Squares

Innovative Cross

Bride in Bed

Guard

Groom on Camel

Ewer Variation

Flower

Camel for Holy Curtain (Mahmal)

Stars

The legendary Tahia Carioca, along with her dancers, wearing traditional belly dance suits

46 47

as: marriage (representation of brides and grooms), religion (mosques and crosses), folk belief (amulets and talis-manic symbols), nature (water, stars, palm trees and animals indigenous to the area) and motifs related to daily life (candles, lanterns and combs). Es-sentially, the patterns embroidered on dresses, scarves and shawls tell a story. In some instances, the stories being told predate the eighteenth cen-tury terminus post quem prescribed, there are clear pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic antecedents that are recogniz-able. In the case of Ancient Egyptian prototypes, the arrangement, as well as motifs, can be directly linked with the registers in tombs. Over the years, production has diminished partially due to changing fashion trends, but also as a result of the expense asso-ciated with the use of gold and silver thread, which is only produced in the Czech Republic, France and Germany.

Dr. El-Messiri’s formal journey with started in 2001, when she was com-

missioned by the Egyptian Society for Folk Tradition (ESFT), at the request of the National Council of Women (NCW), due to her expertise in the arena of traditional crafts, to do a study on . This was a sequel, of sorts, to previous work carried out in the 1990s in the form of two training programs – one sponsored by UNICEF in the village/island of Gazirat Shandawil in Sohag,

Above - Dr Nawal El Messiri wearing one of her shawls.

3

46 47

as: marriage (representation of brides and grooms), religion (mosques and crosses), folk belief (amulets and talis-manic symbols), nature (water, stars, palm trees and animals indigenous to the area) and motifs related to daily life (candles, lanterns and combs). Es-sentially, the patterns embroidered on dresses, scarves and shawls tell a story. In some instances, the stories being told predate the eighteenth cen-tury terminus post quem prescribed, there are clear pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic antecedents that are recogniz-able. In the case of Ancient Egyptian prototypes, the arrangement, as well as motifs, can be directly linked with the registers in tombs. Over the years, production has diminished partially due to changing fashion trends, but also as a result of the expense asso-ciated with the use of gold and silver thread, which is only produced in the Czech Republic, France and Germany.

Dr. El-Messiri’s formal journey with started in 2001, when she was com-

missioned by the Egyptian Society for Folk Tradition (ESFT), at the request of the National Council of Women (NCW), due to her expertise in the arena of traditional crafts, to do a study on . This was a sequel, of sorts, to previous work carried out in the 1990s in the form of two training programs – one sponsored by UNICEF in the village/island of Gazirat Shandawil in Sohag,

Above - Dr Nawal El Messiri wearing one of her shawls.

3

48

and the second under the auspices of the Egyptian Social Fund for Develop-ment in Assiut.

Dr. el-Messiri had prior experience with this type of social/cultural an-thropology through her extensive re-search on Nubia and Egyptian street life. The study, which focused on the cultural and social context of the art-ists that produced , concluded that the Museum of Folklore in Attaba Square had several dresses worked in that were acquired in the 1950s and 1960s, which were recorded, docu-mented, assessed and photographed; the patterns applied were also studied and recorded for analysis, and sub-sequently Dr. el-Messiri has partici-pated in the identification of the mo-tifs and their symbolic meaning. All of this data resulted in a 2002 exhibition in Bayt al-Kharazati in Cairo inaugu-rated by Egypt’s First Lady.

This research ultimately led Dr. el-Messiri to the trained women engaged in making on the island of Gazirat Shandawil in Sohag, with whom she has maintained a relationship ever since. The women wanted to distribute the work they made, so Dr. El Messiri began marketing their products. One of the problems that arose was self-sufficiency with regards to having a constant stream of the thread. Con-tinuing to import from Europe proved to be too expensive, so Dr. el-Mes-siri searched for a distributor of the thread for over a year until she found a company that made it in India, only pure gold and silver thread was now replaced with copper plated with gold and silver. Importing the thread from India allows her to make the thread readily available for the women that create .

Today, to ensure the future of , Dr. el-Messiri has helped steer the art into a more practical and socially respon-sible direction. She has concentrated her efforts on finding ways to apply

the embroidered fabric to household accessories. So, in addition to scarves and shawls, she has combined with furniture and home decor manu-factured by NADIM, concentrating on screens, curtains, lampshades, cushions and bed covers. She feels these are more lasting than the tradi-tional dresses that are subject to ev-er-changing fashion trends. Besides, her experiments have proved that the textiles (cotton mesh and linen) when

worked with are more adaptive to the furniture. The end result is a more creative product that can be adapted to different and more practical uses.

Currently, there are 600 women and girls working in Gazirat Shan-dawil supporting 600 families. Be-yond the financial independence, the aforementioned training program and study has empowered these tradition-al women: they travel to fairs and dis-play their work; are the main compo-nent in the maintenance and survival of a dying tradition; have become an important part of an Egyptian identity that is recognized and appreciated the world over; and, despite the fact that they come from conservative villages in Upper Egypt, when given a chance, these women show tremendous cre-ativity. Dr. el-Messiri feels their suc-cess, albeit gradual, is sustainable and a model for other similarly dying crafts in Egypt.

For more information on , look out for Dr. el-Messiri’s forthcoming book on the subject: The Making of a Tra-ditional Artists: the Art of and Sus-tainable Development (published by ESFT). This book examines the tradi-tion of -making from an anthropologi-cal and artistic perspective. An Arabic translation by ESFT will soon follow in order to reach a wider readership.

In addition to NADIM and other ven-dors, their work is exhibited in major fairs and expos, and was recently in-corporated into the Marie Louis fash-ion line.

NADIMhttp://www.nadim.org/.htmlAbu Rawash Industrial ZoneCairo Alex Desert Road, Giza, Egypt. Tel: (+ 202) 35 39 16 01-8Fax: (+ 202) 35 39 16 09Email: nadiminfo@nadim.org

1,2 -A modern twist: the traditional art of used in furniture at the NADIM gallery

What was once a personal hobby and passion is now a thriving home for traditional handicrafts with 30 full time and part-time workers. It was Noura Mossallem’s love for traditional Egyptian handicrafts and her back-ground in the field of community development that pro-vided her with the driving force she needed to create her own brand and establish her own company (Traditional Crafts Co.)

All designs are derived from time-honoured traditional crafts, especially from the Bedouin markets (Al-Arish, Bahareya, Siwa Oasis) and the ancient textile villages of Upper Egypt. The drawings used on the Bedouin gal-labeyas inspired the designs used for Nora’s handbags, accessories and decorative soft furnishings. Egyptian made fabrics are used starting from Taftan, Catain, tra-ditional sanitized cotton (shahee) to sturdier chenille and finer materials used for details and embroidery.

A very interesting and rather amusing thing about these products is that they are named after real people who have inspired them; so you will find Noura, Sarah, Rouby & Safiya in the handbags section, and then you’ll see Touha, Farah & Shahrazade in the Accesories. Prod-ucts range in price from 25 L.E to 800 L.E for bed covers.

Noura’s style is simple and creative in that it combines the Egyptian skills and crafts with modern designs while adding a traditional final touch to many of her products. Every detail is handmade, each piece with a unique char-acter and intricate design.

Noura Mossalam’s workshop is located in Dokki (on Wizarat Al Zira’ah Street). Products can also be found in Al Khatoun, Bashayer, Rim, And Company, Volume I and soon will be opening her own shops at Fostat Market in Cairo as well as Habiba & Aaesha Stores in Luxor. Prod-ucts are also exported to the UK and New Zealand.

Noura Mossalam

49

48

and the second under the auspices of the Egyptian Social Fund for Develop-ment in Assiut.

Dr. el-Messiri had prior experience with this type of social/cultural an-thropology through her extensive re-search on Nubia and Egyptian street life. The study, which focused on the cultural and social context of the art-ists that produced , concluded that the Museum of Folklore in Attaba Square had several dresses worked in that were acquired in the 1950s and 1960s, which were recorded, docu-mented, assessed and photographed; the patterns applied were also studied and recorded for analysis, and sub-sequently Dr. el-Messiri has partici-pated in the identification of the mo-tifs and their symbolic meaning. All of this data resulted in a 2002 exhibition in Bayt al-Kharazati in Cairo inaugu-rated by Egypt’s First Lady.

This research ultimately led Dr. el-Messiri to the trained women engaged in making on the island of Gazirat Shandawil in Sohag, with whom she has maintained a relationship ever since. The women wanted to distribute the work they made, so Dr. El Messiri began marketing their products. One of the problems that arose was self-sufficiency with regards to having a constant stream of the thread. Con-tinuing to import from Europe proved to be too expensive, so Dr. el-Mes-siri searched for a distributor of the thread for over a year until she found a company that made it in India, only pure gold and silver thread was now replaced with copper plated with gold and silver. Importing the thread from India allows her to make the thread readily available for the women that create .

Today, to ensure the future of , Dr. el-Messiri has helped steer the art into a more practical and socially respon-sible direction. She has concentrated her efforts on finding ways to apply

the embroidered fabric to household accessories. So, in addition to scarves and shawls, she has combined with furniture and home decor manu-factured by NADIM, concentrating on screens, curtains, lampshades, cushions and bed covers. She feels these are more lasting than the tradi-tional dresses that are subject to ev-er-changing fashion trends. Besides, her experiments have proved that the textiles (cotton mesh and linen) when

worked with are more adaptive to the furniture. The end result is a more creative product that can be adapted to different and more practical uses.

Currently, there are 600 women and girls working in Gazirat Shan-dawil supporting 600 families. Be-yond the financial independence, the aforementioned training program and study has empowered these tradition-al women: they travel to fairs and dis-play their work; are the main compo-nent in the maintenance and survival of a dying tradition; have become an important part of an Egyptian identity that is recognized and appreciated the world over; and, despite the fact that they come from conservative villages in Upper Egypt, when given a chance, these women show tremendous cre-ativity. Dr. el-Messiri feels their suc-cess, albeit gradual, is sustainable and a model for other similarly dying crafts in Egypt.

For more information on , look out for Dr. el-Messiri’s forthcoming book on the subject: The Making of a Tra-ditional Artists: the Art of and Sus-tainable Development (published by ESFT). This book examines the tradi-tion of -making from an anthropologi-cal and artistic perspective. An Arabic translation by ESFT will soon follow in order to reach a wider readership.

In addition to NADIM and other ven-dors, their work is exhibited in major fairs and expos, and was recently in-corporated into the Marie Louis fash-ion line.

NADIMhttp://www.nadim.org/.htmlAbu Rawash Industrial ZoneCairo Alex Desert Road, Giza, Egypt. Tel: (+ 202) 35 39 16 01-8Fax: (+ 202) 35 39 16 09Email: nadiminfo@nadim.org

1,2 -A modern twist: the traditional art of used in furniture at the NADIM gallery

What was once a personal hobby and passion is now a thriving home for traditional handicrafts with 30 full time and part-time workers. It was Noura Mossallem’s love for traditional Egyptian handicrafts and her back-ground in the field of community development that pro-vided her with the driving force she needed to create her own brand and establish her own company (Traditional Crafts Co.)

All designs are derived from time-honoured traditional crafts, especially from the Bedouin markets (Al-Arish, Bahareya, Siwa Oasis) and the ancient textile villages of Upper Egypt. The drawings used on the Bedouin gal-labeyas inspired the designs used for Nora’s handbags, accessories and decorative soft furnishings. Egyptian made fabrics are used starting from Taftan, Catain, tra-ditional sanitized cotton (shahee) to sturdier chenille and finer materials used for details and embroidery.

A very interesting and rather amusing thing about these products is that they are named after real people who have inspired them; so you will find Noura, Sarah, Rouby & Safiya in the handbags section, and then you’ll see Touha, Farah & Shahrazade in the Accesories. Prod-ucts range in price from 25 L.E to 800 L.E for bed covers.

Noura’s style is simple and creative in that it combines the Egyptian skills and crafts with modern designs while adding a traditional final touch to many of her products. Every detail is handmade, each piece with a unique char-acter and intricate design.

Noura Mossalam’s workshop is located in Dokki (on Wizarat Al Zira’ah Street). Products can also be found in Al Khatoun, Bashayer, Rim, And Company, Volume I and soon will be opening her own shops at Fostat Market in Cairo as well as Habiba & Aaesha Stores in Luxor. Prod-ucts are also exported to the UK and New Zealand.

Noura Mossalam

49

50

This issue’s profile doesn’t feature a conservator, archeologist or his-torian. This time, we felt compelled to tell our readers about one very unique businessman who is no stranger to those interested in Egyptian heritage. An accounting legend, as many call him, Farid Mansour, is the founder of Mansour & Co. PricewaterhouseCoopers, an audit firm operating in Egypt for the past 33 years.

Here at Turath, however, we know him best as the founder and chairman of the Quseir Preservation Society, as

well as, the Friends of the Coptic and Islamic Art Museum Associations. Mansour is a regular face at all heri-tage related events, from lectures to civil society meetings, and he is never a mere bystander.

“We had been trying to organize some capacity building programs for the museum’s curators,” says Nadja Tomoum, head of the Coptic Museum Training Project. “This was one of the main contributions of the Friends of the Coptic Museum; they sponsored a six-month English language course for our curators.” Tomoum had met with the association headed by Man-sour for the first time in 2006. They invited members of the museum’s staff to attend board meetings and speak of the challenges they faced to explore ways in which the association can help. Other than the curator’s training program, the association has also raised funds for a condition sur-vey and cataloguing project of several thousands of priceless manuscripts housed in the museum’s archive. The J. Paul Getty Foundation in Los An-

geles, approved the pro-posal submitted by the Friends of the Coptic Museum and assigned qualified experts to un-dertake the monumen-tal task. The associa-tion also currently funds a quarterly newsletter, Parrhêsia, meaning “free speech”, which is distrib-uted for free and aims to spread awareness of Egypt’s Coptic heritage.

Many more projects are still in the pipeline and Mansour keeps an open dialogue with members of the mu-seum’s staff in order to stay in touch and find opportunities in which the association can help overcome any problems and publicize or “market” the museum’s facilities and services, a fact also affirmed by Iman Abdulfattah, co-ordinator of the Museum of Islamic Art Restoration Project. A similar train-ing project is being planned for the museum’s curators in the upcoming months, sponsored by the Friends of the Museum of Islamic Art association.

When I spoke to Mansour for this article, he had just returned from Quseir, where it all began for him, as I discovered. “Twelve years ago, I had an assignment in Quseir, a valu-ation. It was my first time to visit the city and I was fascinated with it. It’s a small town with a big history, being a major port in ancient times. What captivated me the most, though, was its unique wooden architecture.”

Farid Mansour Lending a Helping Hand

Yasmine El Dorghamy

51

Opposite - Farid Mansour speaking at a Coptic Museum fund raiser.1- �e Coptic Museum entrance2-�e manuscript condition survey and cataloguing project underway at the Coptic Museum Photo: Elke Reinhuber/SCA

Being a port, leftover wood from boat making was continually abundant, and was used to embellish the city’s buildings, many of which still remain, but in deteriorating condition. “This was the first time I decided to start an organized initiative to protect a kind of heritage. I contacted all the Quseir heritage enthusiasts I could think of; people from the former phosphate company (which provided a main source of employment for the town until it was shut down in the 1980s), people originally from Quseir whom I met in Cairo, and more. We set up an NGO and started restoring one of the houses with funding from the (Swed-ish) Wallenberg Foundation.”

The NGO may have begun with grant funding, but it soon became financial-ly independent. Taking special con-sideration to ensure the financial sus-tainability of the NGO, Mansour began a microfinance program offering LE 5,000 loans for activities such as set-ting up workshops, small establish-ments and the like. The loan program helped provide both permanent and temporary employment for the town’s locals who had depended primarily on the now defunct phosphate company for their livelihood. Today, the Quseir Presevation Society’s microcredit pro-gram disburses LE 15,000,000 in re-volving loans and boasts a 98% repay-ment rate.

“The Islamic and Coptic Museum

Farid Mansour Lending a Helping Hand 1

2

50

This issue’s profile doesn’t feature a conservator, archeologist or his-torian. This time, we felt compelled to tell our readers about one very unique businessman who is no stranger to those interested in Egyptian heritage. An accounting legend, as many call him, Farid Mansour, is the founder of Mansour & Co. PricewaterhouseCoopers, an audit firm operating in Egypt for the past 33 years.

Here at Turath, however, we know him best as the founder and chairman of the Quseir Preservation Society, as

well as, the Friends of the Coptic and Islamic Art Museum Associations. Mansour is a regular face at all heri-tage related events, from lectures to civil society meetings, and he is never a mere bystander.

“We had been trying to organize some capacity building programs for the museum’s curators,” says Nadja Tomoum, head of the Coptic Museum Training Project. “This was one of the main contributions of the Friends of the Coptic Museum; they sponsored a six-month English language course for our curators.” Tomoum had met with the association headed by Man-sour for the first time in 2006. They invited members of the museum’s staff to attend board meetings and speak of the challenges they faced to explore ways in which the association can help. Other than the curator’s training program, the association has also raised funds for a condition sur-vey and cataloguing project of several thousands of priceless manuscripts housed in the museum’s archive. The J. Paul Getty Foundation in Los An-

geles, approved the pro-posal submitted by the Friends of the Coptic Museum and assigned qualified experts to un-dertake the monumen-tal task. The associa-tion also currently funds a quarterly newsletter, Parrhêsia, meaning “free speech”, which is distrib-uted for free and aims to spread awareness of Egypt’s Coptic heritage.

Many more projects are still in the pipeline and Mansour keeps an open dialogue with members of the mu-seum’s staff in order to stay in touch and find opportunities in which the association can help overcome any problems and publicize or “market” the museum’s facilities and services, a fact also affirmed by Iman Abdulfattah, co-ordinator of the Museum of Islamic Art Restoration Project. A similar train-ing project is being planned for the museum’s curators in the upcoming months, sponsored by the Friends of the Museum of Islamic Art association.

When I spoke to Mansour for this article, he had just returned from Quseir, where it all began for him, as I discovered. “Twelve years ago, I had an assignment in Quseir, a valu-ation. It was my first time to visit the city and I was fascinated with it. It’s a small town with a big history, being a major port in ancient times. What captivated me the most, though, was its unique wooden architecture.”

Farid Mansour Lending a Helping Hand

Yasmine El Dorghamy

51

Opposite - Farid Mansour speaking at a Coptic Museum fund raiser.1- �e Coptic Museum entrance2-�e manuscript condition survey and cataloguing project underway at the Coptic Museum Photo: Elke Reinhuber/SCA

Being a port, leftover wood from boat making was continually abundant, and was used to embellish the city’s buildings, many of which still remain, but in deteriorating condition. “This was the first time I decided to start an organized initiative to protect a kind of heritage. I contacted all the Quseir heritage enthusiasts I could think of; people from the former phosphate company (which provided a main source of employment for the town until it was shut down in the 1980s), people originally from Quseir whom I met in Cairo, and more. We set up an NGO and started restoring one of the houses with funding from the (Swed-ish) Wallenberg Foundation.”

The NGO may have begun with grant funding, but it soon became financial-ly independent. Taking special con-sideration to ensure the financial sus-tainability of the NGO, Mansour began a microfinance program offering LE 5,000 loans for activities such as set-ting up workshops, small establish-ments and the like. The loan program helped provide both permanent and temporary employment for the town’s locals who had depended primarily on the now defunct phosphate company for their livelihood. Today, the Quseir Presevation Society’s microcredit pro-gram disburses LE 15,000,000 in re-volving loans and boasts a 98% repay-ment rate.

“The Islamic and Coptic Museum

Farid Mansour Lending a Helping Hand 1

2

52

Associations also stemmed from my activities in Quseir.” Mansour adds. “The Ottoman Fort in Quseir had been re-stored by the Ameri-can Research Center in Egypt and was not handed over to the Egyptian govern-ment for launching simply because the designated officials were too busy to schedule a date for the inauguration. The Fort ended up staying closed to the public for a long time after its restoration.” He added, “I spoke to Dr. Zahi Hawass, and convinced him to join me on a visit to Quseir.” His interest in the city re-vived after the visit and the enthusi-astic tour given by Mansour, Hawass immediately saw to it that the inau-guration took place and the Fort was finally open to visitors.

Seeing potential for more of this type of activity, Hawass was actually the one to suggest setting up another civil society organization for the Mu-seum of Islamic Art, which at the time was beginning its restoration and re-furbishment project. Mansour was equally enthusiastic. “Again, I called all interested people I could think of to join and we formed an NGO. This was four years ago. We started meet-ing with museum staff, who of course took some time to open up to us, and participated in discussions regarding the museum’s new layout, the labeling of artifacts, and many such details.”

The association is currently plan-ning a workshop with the Islamic Art

Museum to train new curators. Most of the curators are over 55 years of age and a new generation needs to be prepared and trained. Therefore, a six-month workshop is being orga-nized and the Friends will start a call for university graduates who speak English to teach them how to update databases and maintain library re-cords, among other curatorial skills. “We’re trying to get help from Ger-many to recruit Museology teachers. We are then planning to have a series of lectures and a symposium, upon the inauguration, which should be around October 2009.”

Another activity that the association plans to begin after the museum’s inauguration is school trips. Private schools will be charged a fee that would cover the expenses of schools from poorer areas. “My favorite subject in school was history. I spent most of my vacations in museums rather than sitting on the beach,” Mansour says.

With the monumental task of main-taining museums and sites in a coun-try like Egypt, the government does need the help of community associa-tions to fill in the gaps or simply to

communicate the voice of the public. This is a fact that both private indi-viduals and govern-ment entities are slowly coming to re-alize, as the former starts to take more initiative and the lat-ter to trust more and cooperate. Perhaps bringing a private sector mentality with

its enthusiasm and creativity, to aid publicly funded institutions with their social priorities and stability, may af-ter all prove to be the ultimate formu-la for success.

For more information, please contact:

Friends of the Museum of Islamic Art Email: islamicmuseumfriends@google-mail.comHonorary Secretary: Nadia Hamdy- 012 310 3499 - Email: hamdynadia@hotmail.com Friends of the Coptic MuseumEmail: copticmuseumfriends@google-mail.comHonorary Secretary: Yousri Acliman-dos- 012 211 2566Email: yousri.aclimandos@gmail.com

Quseir Heritage Preservation Society Contact number: 065 333 5232General Manager: Adel Aish- 018 141 9160

Above - The canons of the Ottoman fort in Quseir Photo: Mohamed El Hebeishy

53

52

Associations also stemmed from my activities in Quseir.” Mansour adds. “The Ottoman Fort in Quseir had been re-stored by the Ameri-can Research Center in Egypt and was not handed over to the Egyptian govern-ment for launching simply because the designated officials were too busy to schedule a date for the inauguration. The Fort ended up staying closed to the public for a long time after its restoration.” He added, “I spoke to Dr. Zahi Hawass, and convinced him to join me on a visit to Quseir.” His interest in the city re-vived after the visit and the enthusi-astic tour given by Mansour, Hawass immediately saw to it that the inau-guration took place and the Fort was finally open to visitors.

Seeing potential for more of this type of activity, Hawass was actually the one to suggest setting up another civil society organization for the Mu-seum of Islamic Art, which at the time was beginning its restoration and re-furbishment project. Mansour was equally enthusiastic. “Again, I called all interested people I could think of to join and we formed an NGO. This was four years ago. We started meet-ing with museum staff, who of course took some time to open up to us, and participated in discussions regarding the museum’s new layout, the labeling of artifacts, and many such details.”

The association is currently plan-ning a workshop with the Islamic Art

Museum to train new curators. Most of the curators are over 55 years of age and a new generation needs to be prepared and trained. Therefore, a six-month workshop is being orga-nized and the Friends will start a call for university graduates who speak English to teach them how to update databases and maintain library re-cords, among other curatorial skills. “We’re trying to get help from Ger-many to recruit Museology teachers. We are then planning to have a series of lectures and a symposium, upon the inauguration, which should be around October 2009.”

Another activity that the association plans to begin after the museum’s inauguration is school trips. Private schools will be charged a fee that would cover the expenses of schools from poorer areas. “My favorite subject in school was history. I spent most of my vacations in museums rather than sitting on the beach,” Mansour says.

With the monumental task of main-taining museums and sites in a coun-try like Egypt, the government does need the help of community associa-tions to fill in the gaps or simply to

communicate the voice of the public. This is a fact that both private indi-viduals and govern-ment entities are slowly coming to re-alize, as the former starts to take more initiative and the lat-ter to trust more and cooperate. Perhaps bringing a private sector mentality with

its enthusiasm and creativity, to aid publicly funded institutions with their social priorities and stability, may af-ter all prove to be the ultimate formu-la for success.

For more information, please contact:

Friends of the Museum of Islamic Art Email: islamicmuseumfriends@google-mail.comHonorary Secretary: Nadia Hamdy- 012 310 3499 - Email: hamdynadia@hotmail.com Friends of the Coptic MuseumEmail: copticmuseumfriends@google-mail.comHonorary Secretary: Yousri Acliman-dos- 012 211 2566Email: yousri.aclimandos@gmail.com

Quseir Heritage Preservation Society Contact number: 065 333 5232General Manager: Adel Aish- 018 141 9160

Above - The canons of the Ottoman fort in Quseir Photo: Mohamed El Hebeishy

53

54

Monumental architecture and magnificent struc-tures have fascinated me all my life. I always found myself curious about how these grand

buildings were constructed. Growing up with this fasci-nation, it was very clear to me what I want to study. Af-ter graduating as a construction engineer, my wish was to work in a field that combined my area of study with my passion for culture and heritage. There are many pro-fessions that combine architecture and culture, but there was one more element that was vital to me: I wanted my work to include activities that would serve underprivileged communities as well. I chose to work in heritage conser-vation and restoration projects in Egypt, a field that com-bines engineering, architecture, culture and development.

I trained and worked in heritage conservation projects in Cairo and Luxor, took related courses and simply followed my passion. Towards the end of 2003, I visited some of the conservation and restoration projects carried out by the Aga Khan Cultural Services- Egypt the local agency of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Egypt. One of them

was the Madrasa and Mosque of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban in Historic Cairo. The mosque was constructed in 1368-9 AD and was dedicated by Sultan Sha‘ban to his mother Khwand (Lady) Baraka, and lies on Bab al-Wazir street, which connects Bab Zuwayla to the Citadel in al-Darb al-Ahmar district. At that time, the upper part of the minaret, which had collapsed after the 1884 earthquake was being reconstructed.

While going up the scaffolding surrounding the minaret of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban for the first time, trying to form an opinion on its reconstruction, little did I know that a couple of months later, I would be asked to join this project and would have to explain to the visitors why the upper part of the minaret was rebuilt.

During the construction of al-Azhar Park, two minarets in the vicinity, (that of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban Madrasa and Mosque and that of Khayer Bek Mosque) could be clearly seen with their upper parts missing as a result of a late 19th century earthquake. His Highness the Aga Khan had a vision of restoring Historic Cairo’s “1000 minaret”

© A

ga Khan C

ultural Services - Egypt/AK

TC

D E B

Reclaiming D E B

Reclaiming the Crafts in the City of 1000 Minarets

55

skyline to its former glory which is how all this began.Although the original function of a minaret was for the

call for prayer, it also played an important role from the architectural and urban points of view. Minarets were al-ways placed in a part of the building that would render them as landmarks of the urban fabric of the city, hence giving orientation to the passers by. So, despite the fact that their function as a place for the call for prayers has ceased to exist, for many, their completion gives back the building its integrity.

In 2003, what was still fascinating was the re-construc-tion process itself, not only from the engineering point, with challenges like rendering the upper part of the mina-ret structurally safe, but also with regards to the work-manship used to carve the intricate muqarnas stone deco-rations. Stone-cutters and carvers worked meticulously on transforming each piece of stone into the complex design that was once there. Ultimately, what was restored was not just the minaret’s upper part but also the skills of the stone-cutters and carvers that have today become rare. The revival of crafts and use of local craftsmen was a cru-cial part of this conservation project. The project then was enlarged to the cleaning, conservation and restoration of the whole mosque space, its façades, its two domed mausolea, its interior rooms and the ablution area. Conservators were working on cleaning and conser-vation of the façades and domes, focusing on all the delicate wooden and metal decorative elements. The work process was long, and involved a great number of decisions concerning the technique and the prin-ciples of the conservation decisions. [More details concerning issues regarding fine conservation, conservation principles, etc. will be discussed in a series of articles by the author in upcoming issues of Turath].

The design and implementation of the lighting system of the mosque’s iwans and courtyard were

the next important part of the project as it came to its final stages. Two types of lighting fixtures were used; modern ones were applied on specific decorative elements, such as those on the ceilings, while others similar to the original ones found in museums and represented on drawings and lithographs such as those of David Roberts, were used. A

lighting concept that respects the old design ignited the mosque’s spirit once again. It also engaged a craftsman from the neighborhood, who had received a micro-credit loan from Aga Khan Cultural Services- Egypt, to revive his craft and workshop. The engagement of local crafts-men in conservation projects economically revives and develops the area, while raising the community’s

55

1

Opposite: Stone cleaning of the exterior ribs of the dome us-ing the micro-sand-blaster technique Photo: Matjaz Kacicnik 1-A stone carver working on the intricate muqarnas designs for the reconstruction of the minaret’s upper part Below - Exterior view of the madrasa and mosque after the reconstruction of the upper part of the minaret and comple-tion of the restoration process © Aga Khan Cultural Services - Egypt/AKTC

© A

ga Khan C

ultural Services - Egypt/AK

TC

54

Monumental architecture and magnificent struc-tures have fascinated me all my life. I always found myself curious about how these grand

buildings were constructed. Growing up with this fasci-nation, it was very clear to me what I want to study. Af-ter graduating as a construction engineer, my wish was to work in a field that combined my area of study with my passion for culture and heritage. There are many pro-fessions that combine architecture and culture, but there was one more element that was vital to me: I wanted my work to include activities that would serve underprivileged communities as well. I chose to work in heritage conser-vation and restoration projects in Egypt, a field that com-bines engineering, architecture, culture and development.

I trained and worked in heritage conservation projects in Cairo and Luxor, took related courses and simply followed my passion. Towards the end of 2003, I visited some of the conservation and restoration projects carried out by the Aga Khan Cultural Services- Egypt the local agency of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Egypt. One of them

was the Madrasa and Mosque of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban in Historic Cairo. The mosque was constructed in 1368-9 AD and was dedicated by Sultan Sha‘ban to his mother Khwand (Lady) Baraka, and lies on Bab al-Wazir street, which connects Bab Zuwayla to the Citadel in al-Darb al-Ahmar district. At that time, the upper part of the minaret, which had collapsed after the 1884 earthquake was being reconstructed.

While going up the scaffolding surrounding the minaret of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban for the first time, trying to form an opinion on its reconstruction, little did I know that a couple of months later, I would be asked to join this project and would have to explain to the visitors why the upper part of the minaret was rebuilt.

During the construction of al-Azhar Park, two minarets in the vicinity, (that of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban Madrasa and Mosque and that of Khayer Bek Mosque) could be clearly seen with their upper parts missing as a result of a late 19th century earthquake. His Highness the Aga Khan had a vision of restoring Historic Cairo’s “1000 minaret”

© A

ga Khan C

ultural Services - Egypt/AK

TC

D E B

Reclaiming D E B

Reclaiming the Crafts in the City of 1000 Minarets

55

skyline to its former glory which is how all this began.Although the original function of a minaret was for the

call for prayer, it also played an important role from the architectural and urban points of view. Minarets were al-ways placed in a part of the building that would render them as landmarks of the urban fabric of the city, hence giving orientation to the passers by. So, despite the fact that their function as a place for the call for prayers has ceased to exist, for many, their completion gives back the building its integrity.

In 2003, what was still fascinating was the re-construc-tion process itself, not only from the engineering point, with challenges like rendering the upper part of the mina-ret structurally safe, but also with regards to the work-manship used to carve the intricate muqarnas stone deco-rations. Stone-cutters and carvers worked meticulously on transforming each piece of stone into the complex design that was once there. Ultimately, what was restored was not just the minaret’s upper part but also the skills of the stone-cutters and carvers that have today become rare. The revival of crafts and use of local craftsmen was a cru-cial part of this conservation project. The project then was enlarged to the cleaning, conservation and restoration of the whole mosque space, its façades, its two domed mausolea, its interior rooms and the ablution area. Conservators were working on cleaning and conser-vation of the façades and domes, focusing on all the delicate wooden and metal decorative elements. The work process was long, and involved a great number of decisions concerning the technique and the prin-ciples of the conservation decisions. [More details concerning issues regarding fine conservation, conservation principles, etc. will be discussed in a series of articles by the author in upcoming issues of Turath].

The design and implementation of the lighting system of the mosque’s iwans and courtyard were

the next important part of the project as it came to its final stages. Two types of lighting fixtures were used; modern ones were applied on specific decorative elements, such as those on the ceilings, while others similar to the original ones found in museums and represented on drawings and lithographs such as those of David Roberts, were used. A

lighting concept that respects the old design ignited the mosque’s spirit once again. It also engaged a craftsman from the neighborhood, who had received a micro-credit loan from Aga Khan Cultural Services- Egypt, to revive his craft and workshop. The engagement of local crafts-men in conservation projects economically revives and develops the area, while raising the community’s

55

1

Opposite: Stone cleaning of the exterior ribs of the dome us-ing the micro-sand-blaster technique Photo: Matjaz Kacicnik 1-A stone carver working on the intricate muqarnas designs for the reconstruction of the minaret’s upper part Below - Exterior view of the madrasa and mosque after the reconstruction of the upper part of the minaret and comple-tion of the restoration process © Aga Khan Cultural Services - Egypt/AKTC

© A

ga Khan C

ultural Services - Egypt/AK

TC

56

awareness concerning the importance and significance of their skills.

The older craftsmen were setting an example for young-er skilled laborers who were working closely with them. Transferring the knowledge and skill from generation to generation is currently very much needed, especially at times when the young ones tend to be more interested in easier jobs, not appreciating the value of traditional handi-crafts and age-old skills. While working for the past few years on a number of projects, I started giving presenta-tions to the team’s craftsmen, conservators and skilled, as well as casual laborers, regarding theoretical issues in conservation and heritage. The reason for this is that work-ing in conservation of heritage requires a certain sensitiv-ity towards the material we are working with, as well as an understanding of the value of this work. I have to say that at the beginning, the craftsmen and workers were not in-terested in attending these “classes”; becoming a student again was not really something they looked forward to. But with passion and perseverance this resistance dimin-ished. They realized one important concept: at home, when they have an old photograph or an old banknote that their parents or grandparents left them, they treat it differently than a new one, they show it to other relatives and friends and preserve it for their children and grandchildren. It was then that we discussed the word “Turath” (heritage) and how it derives from the verb to inherit, they understood that they inherited the buildings they are working on and that they should treat them as a personal inheritance. With specific examples from the daily work activities, they realized the positive change they carry out on the buildings they are working on and each of them recognized that they

1 2

© Aga K

han Cultural Services - Egypt/A

KTC

© A

ga Khan C

ultural Services - Egypt/AK

TC

57

are playing an important role in preserving their heritage and transforming it from deteriorating stones in to living, bustling landmarks.

I believe that the architects working with me would agree when I say that after a couple of presentations and discus-sions (or classes), even the work attitude changed and an interest in understanding more about culture and heritage conservation grew among the team.

This article was meant to be about a building that was saved through a conservation and restoration project. However, without highlighting the role of the people who carry out the physical restoration, we can’t really discuss the results. Without their skills and dedication to the work, such achievements are not possible and physical interven-tions without human development and awareness will only be temporary. Many of us know that heritage in general is considered world heritage with an outstanding universal value, but if the local communities are not handed over the necessary knowledge and understanding, sustainable con-servation and maintenance is impossible. In the end, they

are the daily users and maintainers of these buildings. After restoration, the mosque space of Umm al-Sultan

Sha‘ban is operating once more in its original function, while the other rooms were subject to a reuse agreement between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the AKCS-Egypt and are being used now for community service ac-tivities.

Conserving and restoring a building is like treating a pa-tient who is being operated on and moved from a sick con-dition into a stable and healthy one. Nevertheless, staying healthy and thriving is the “post-operative” goal that re-quires a different kind of care. In heritage places, bringing users, not only visitors, who will regularly use and main-tain these buildings is what revives and revitalizes them and makes them true living heritage.

1-Interior view of the qibla iwan through the roof ’s crenellations 2- Exterior façade view after conservation Below - Group photo of the team after the completion of the conser-vation project

© M

atjaz Kacicnik

56

awareness concerning the importance and significance of their skills.

The older craftsmen were setting an example for young-er skilled laborers who were working closely with them. Transferring the knowledge and skill from generation to generation is currently very much needed, especially at times when the young ones tend to be more interested in easier jobs, not appreciating the value of traditional handi-crafts and age-old skills. While working for the past few years on a number of projects, I started giving presenta-tions to the team’s craftsmen, conservators and skilled, as well as casual laborers, regarding theoretical issues in conservation and heritage. The reason for this is that work-ing in conservation of heritage requires a certain sensitiv-ity towards the material we are working with, as well as an understanding of the value of this work. I have to say that at the beginning, the craftsmen and workers were not in-terested in attending these “classes”; becoming a student again was not really something they looked forward to. But with passion and perseverance this resistance dimin-ished. They realized one important concept: at home, when they have an old photograph or an old banknote that their parents or grandparents left them, they treat it differently than a new one, they show it to other relatives and friends and preserve it for their children and grandchildren. It was then that we discussed the word “Turath” (heritage) and how it derives from the verb to inherit, they understood that they inherited the buildings they are working on and that they should treat them as a personal inheritance. With specific examples from the daily work activities, they realized the positive change they carry out on the buildings they are working on and each of them recognized that they

1 2

© Aga K

han Cultural Services - Egypt/A

KTC

© A

ga Khan C

ultural Services - Egypt/AK

TC

57

are playing an important role in preserving their heritage and transforming it from deteriorating stones in to living, bustling landmarks.

I believe that the architects working with me would agree when I say that after a couple of presentations and discus-sions (or classes), even the work attitude changed and an interest in understanding more about culture and heritage conservation grew among the team.

This article was meant to be about a building that was saved through a conservation and restoration project. However, without highlighting the role of the people who carry out the physical restoration, we can’t really discuss the results. Without their skills and dedication to the work, such achievements are not possible and physical interven-tions without human development and awareness will only be temporary. Many of us know that heritage in general is considered world heritage with an outstanding universal value, but if the local communities are not handed over the necessary knowledge and understanding, sustainable con-servation and maintenance is impossible. In the end, they

are the daily users and maintainers of these buildings. After restoration, the mosque space of Umm al-Sultan

Sha‘ban is operating once more in its original function, while the other rooms were subject to a reuse agreement between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the AKCS-Egypt and are being used now for community service ac-tivities.

Conserving and restoring a building is like treating a pa-tient who is being operated on and moved from a sick con-dition into a stable and healthy one. Nevertheless, staying healthy and thriving is the “post-operative” goal that re-quires a different kind of care. In heritage places, bringing users, not only visitors, who will regularly use and main-tain these buildings is what revives and revitalizes them and makes them true living heritage.

1-Interior view of the qibla iwan through the roof ’s crenellations 2- Exterior façade view after conservation Below - Group photo of the team after the completion of the conser-vation project

© M

atjaz Kacicnik

58

It is a well known fact that the ancient Egyptian language has survived into our modern day Egyptian-Arabic, especially in rural contexts that have not been influenced too much by outsiders. Words like imboo, from the ancient

m pA mw (from the water) used by Egyptian infants to describe drink, are amongst the better known modern words from ancient roots. There are many, many more words. Foota, meaning towel in modern Egyptian comes from the very similar fwte. Its non-Egyptian Arabic equivalent is manshafa. People’s names have also survived, such as the male name Bishoy which comes from an ancient word meaning fate or destiny. The female name Sawsan comes from seshen, meaning a lotus or lily.

Ancient Egyptian words did not only travel across time to modern Egypt, but also across to Arabic in general. The way the sheen letter is written in Arabic is strikingly similar to the ancient and Coptic ways of writing the sh letter. Ancient Egyptian also moved into other languages. The ancient Egyptian word for brick, debet, survived as the Coptic twbe, and through it as the modern Egyptian tooba. The word did not stop at that, but travelled into Arabic across the Arabic speak-ing world, moving with the Arab invasion into Spain, where the word morphed into the Spanish adobe describing brick architecture. It has since migrated into English; keep that in mind next time you use Adobe Photoshop.

But does the name Susan come from Sawsan? I vote yes, but I do have my bi-ases!

Ancient Egyptians often went to war, and needed to tal-

ly the deaths they caused in their enemy’s ranks. Heads or hands could be cut off to bring back to the king as proof of how many enemies were killed. Heads can take up quite a bit of space to trans-port, and as there are two hands it can get too complicated to count, es-pecially if someone had already lost one of them in the battle. What eas-ier way to count than to cut off the male member of the deceased soldiers and bring them back to the king? Grim, but ap-parently convenient. The temple of Medinet Habu in Luxor shows upon its walls a huge pile of phal-luses cut off from the en-emy’s army.

Summer is upon us, and with it the sticky flies have increased in their obnox-iousness. The ancient Egyptians also suffered from flies – the word for fly is ‘aaf, which sounds like quite the angry grunt, but they managed to look on

the bright side. Flies are persistent, just how a good solider should be in battle. The Golden Fly of Valour was a fly-shaped pendant once awarded for military achievement, but eventually became a generic decoration given to any court-ier on a special occasion such as coronation. These “Golden Flies” are much more elegant than actual flies, and their manufacture was very delicate and intricate with several steps employed to create these beautiful pendants.

ummer is upon us, and with it the sticky flies have increased in their obnox-iousness. The ancient Egyptians also suffered from flies – the word for fly is ‘aaf, which sounds like quite the angry grunt, but they managed to look on

the bright side. Flies are persistent, just how a good solider should be in battle. The Golden Fly of Valour was a fly-shaped pendant once awarded for military achievement, but eventually became a generic decoration given to any court-ier on a special occasion such as coronation. These “Golden Flies” are much

DID YOU KNOW?M-A E D

59

The scarab is one of the most recognised symbols of ancient Egypt. Egyptian mythology had the scarab beetle play an im-portant role in rebirth and resurrection, which were both key

elements of Egyptian belief. Scarabs were thought to have pushed the sun across the sky during the day, and continued to do so during the night hours, ensur- ing that the sun would shine

again, signifying rebirth. Egyp-tians observed their surround-ings closely and did not choose symbols arbitrarily. Scarab beetles were appropriately chosen for the pushing of the sun disc; in nature such beetles slowly form balls of dung, which they proceed to roll in order to lay their eggs in – somehow just like roll-ing the sun disc to ensure a safe birth (or rebirth rather)!

the night hours, ensur- ing that the sun would shine again, signifying rebirth. Egyp-tians observed their surround-ings closely and did not choose symbols arbitrarily. Scarab beetles were appropriately chosen for the pushing of the sun disc; in nature such beetles slowly form balls of dung, which they proceed to roll in order to lay their eggs in – somehow just like roll-ing the sun disc to ensure a safe birth (or rebirth rather)!

The aim of mummification was to preserve the body so its soul would recognize it and re-enter it thereby living again. In one way, Egyptians conquered the decaying effects of death on the corpses, yet accidents happened and little tricks were used to ensure recognition of the body and therefore a safe passage to the

other world. Eyes are largely water, which meant that the salts used for mummification dried them out, causing the fragile lids to break due to the lack of support. Solution: evidence survives of little onions being used to fill the space of the eye ball, which not only retains plumper eyes, but supported eyelids from caving in. Noses were also at risk of being flattened or broken, and acorns were the perfect solution to keep them up (think Ramsses II). Fingers and toes became dry and brittle af-ter they dried, and were easily broken. Solution: To avoid that, and also to cover it up when it happened all too often, the wealthy deceased were given gold sheets in the shape of toes and fingers to cover their extremities.

happened and little tricks were used to ensure recognition of the body and therefore a safe passage to the other world. Eyes are largely water, which meant that the salts used for mummification dried them out, causing the fragile lids to break due to the lack of support. Solution: evidence survives of little onions being used to fill the space of the eye ball, which not only retains plumper eyes, but supported eyelids from caving in. Noses were also at risk of being flattened or broken, and acorns were the perfect solution to keep them up (think Ramsses II). Fingers and toes became dry and brittle af-ter they dried, and were easily broken. Solution: To avoid that, and also to cover it up when it happened all too often, the wealthy deceased were given

60

long before the time of Chinese made king Tutankhamun mag-nets and pens with floating

pyramids inside that mysterious gelatinous substance, the souve-nir of choice for many travellers from the eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries was non-other than a mummy. A real mummy. After all, “it would be hardly re-spectable, upon one’s return from Egypt, to present oneself without a mummy in one hand and a croc-odile in another” (which a certain father Géramb apparently said to Mohammed Ali in 1833). Again there was such a high demand on mummies, that one story tells of a mummy being sold to a traveller in Aswan. The tourist who bought it later found out that it was not an ancient Egyptian mummy af-ter all, but the body of an English engineer who had died in Egypt.

Before the times of aspirin, decongestant, and effervescent vitamin C tablets, rich Europeans would carry around a pouch of a special powder. A powder that is as ancient

as the world itself, a magic powder that cures all ailments and maladies: mummia powder. Sounds familiar? Indeed, powder made of ground up mummies was a highly demanded commod-ity during the last centuries. There was such a high demand, and not enough ancient mummies to satisfy the craze for mum-mia powder, alternative methods were employed. Starting 1200 AD and for a few hundred years, unclaimed fresh corpses in Alexandria had pitch and resin applied to them, buried for a few years in someone’s backyard, and when they were “ready” they were ground up and sold as mummia powder.

Mummies that made it to Europe became the stars of “mummy unwrapping” parties. These parties became grand social events. Amulets from the wrappings of the mummies were sometimes

given as favours to the guests, and the unwrapped mummy would be dis-played in the house, perhaps in the study of its owner. In America, mum-mies linen wrappings were used to make brown paper used by butchers. The bodies were used for making brown paint for oil paintings, cunningly named “Mummy Brown”. One artist using this colour was so distraught after finding out that this colour was made from actual mummies, that he buried them in his garden, giving them “a decent burial”.

60

long before the time of Chinese made king Tutankhamun mag-nets and pens with floating

pyramids inside that mysterious gelatinous substance, the souve-nir of choice for many travellers from the eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries was non-other than a mummy. A real mummy. After all, “it would be hardly re-spectable, upon one’s return from Egypt, to present oneself without a mummy in one hand and a croc-odile in another” (which a certain father Géramb apparently said to Mohammed Ali in 1833). Again there was such a high demand on mummies, that one story tells of a mummy being sold to a traveller in Aswan. The tourist who bought it later found out that it was not an ancient Egyptian mummy af-ter all, but the body of an English engineer who had died in Egypt.

Before the times of aspirin, decongestant, and effervescent vitamin C tablets, rich Europeans would carry around a pouch of a special powder. A powder that is as ancient

as the world itself, a magic powder that cures all ailments and maladies: mummia powder. Sounds familiar? Indeed, powder made of ground up mummies was a highly demanded commod-ity during the last centuries. There was such a high demand, and not enough ancient mummies to satisfy the craze for mum-mia powder, alternative methods were employed. Starting 1200 AD and for a few hundred years, unclaimed fresh corpses in Alexandria had pitch and resin applied to them, buried for a few years in someone’s backyard, and when they were “ready” they were ground up and sold as mummia powder.

Mummies that made it to Europe became the stars of “mummy unwrapping” parties. These parties became grand social events. Amulets from the wrappings of the mummies were sometimes

given as favours to the guests, and the unwrapped mummy would be dis-played in the house, perhaps in the study of its owner. In America, mum-mies linen wrappings were used to make brown paper used by butchers. The bodies were used for making brown paint for oil paintings, cunningly named “Mummy Brown”. One artist using this colour was so distraught after finding out that this colour was made from actual mummies, that he buried them in his garden, giving them “a decent burial”.

61

62

As she sits on the banks of Ber-ket El Teyr (a lake on the out-skirts of the lands inhabited

by Bani Hellal) with 30 other women from the village, Khadra searches the birds for the right one to wish upon for a son, a bird in whose character and image he would be born. It was not a wish to be taken lightly, for if the gates of heaven were open, there would be no turning back. The first bird to fly down was a beautiful white bird. It landed gracefully and took eloquent measured steps to the bank where it sat to drink. The women cheered and urged her to wish upon the bird, but she refused; how would a bird so beautiful and vain, protect her against her enemies? Shamma, the wife of Sultan Sarhan of the Hilaley tribe, wished upon it herself that her own

son become his father’s graceful heir and leader of the Arabs. The second was a red bird. It plunged down pow-erfully and quarrelled with the birds by the lake until only it was able to drink. Again the women urged Khadra and again she refused; her son would not take his place by force. This time, Prince Ghanem’s wife wished upon it, that her son be as powerful. Next, a beautiful green bird flew, creat-ing wonders in its flight to the lake. It sauntered in its green robe, and the women marvelled at its beauty. Here, the wife of the tribe’s judge and interpreter of the Quran, Zayan, wished that her son be as honourable and glorious as this bird. Finally two strong black birds flew down, the light shining brightly off their faces despite their ‘raisin-like darkness’ (samaar

zabeeby). The women watched in awe as the birds made it to the pond, the master pursued by a follower, as all the birds made way for them. The red bird tried to retrieve its position at the lake, but was scared away with a peck of the black bird’s beak.

This was Khadra’s bird. She wished, despite its color, for a son as strong and charismatic, a noble warrior to unite and protect the Arabs.

And so it was that the gates of heav-en were open, and that the story of the dark visaged Salamah, Barakat or Abuzeid El Hilaley, as he was named by different tribes upon his many ad-mirable conquests, began. So also was the prediction of the births of Diab Ibn Ghanem the envious cousin (Red bird), Hassan, Sultan Sarhan’s son and Zeydan Ibn Zayan, the righteous judge’s son.

This, like many episodes of dreams, visions and magical apparitions weaves its way through Sirat Al Hi-laleya or Sirat Al ‘Arab as it is often called, preparing us at times, and placing parameters and expectations for the story at others. But reminding us always of that intangible dimension of love, magic, and the metaphysical,

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El Sira El Helaleyya Of Past and Present

63

that space where anything is possible, and where rational expectations never dictate actual events. This is an epic that gives as much weight to tactical planning and cunningness as it does to intuition and blind faith. These people that pray to a God they never see, rely on magic in many instances, and believe in the indispensible power of the intuition of their women, whose counsel for tribal decisions on war and migration is as important as stra-tegic considerations.

These are features perhaps common to the Arabs of the day, and thus to many of their epics. Another is the story of the unlikely hero; whether it is in the story of Antar Ibn Shaddad for instance, the slave-turned-warrior, or Abu Zeid’s, of the ‘dark visaged infant, whose birth resulted in his and his mother’s exile on account of her sus-

pected infidelity. Neither ‘fit the heroic bill’ initially, and yet they prove their worthiness as the stories unravel.

Perhaps the heroes’ unlikeliness is an emphasis on their always emerging from the regular people. This makes a possible hero of all those the Sira touches.

What, however, makes the Sira stand out amongst other epics, and why has it lasted in its seemingly ‘full’ form for as many centuries as it has? I will explore a few of the possibilities in this article, namely its historical sig-nificance and its present tradition.

El Sira as Remembrance The main ‘chapters’ of El Reya-

dah (The pioneering journeys) and El Taghriba (The estrangement or mi-gration), of the epic are said to have taken place over the 10th-12th cen-

turies. These represent a history of the conquests of the Arabs, and Abu Zeid’s quest in unifying the Arabian tribes of Najd and Yemen as he treks up through Iraq to Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. El Hilaleyya even-tually also trickle into Morocco, and through Upper Egypt to Sudan and Ethiopia. The tribal coalition grows as they travel from the Island and unite with other tribes through marriages, conquests or the growing army in the quest for greener lands of Tunis al Khadraa.

However, the story is not merely an account of conquests. It is that of Abu

Opposite- “Eastern Story Teller” - from Ebers, Georg. “Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque .” published in 1878Above- A late 19th century postcard depcit-ing a crowd gathered around a story teller

62

As she sits on the banks of Ber-ket El Teyr (a lake on the out-skirts of the lands inhabited

by Bani Hellal) with 30 other women from the village, Khadra searches the birds for the right one to wish upon for a son, a bird in whose character and image he would be born. It was not a wish to be taken lightly, for if the gates of heaven were open, there would be no turning back. The first bird to fly down was a beautiful white bird. It landed gracefully and took eloquent measured steps to the bank where it sat to drink. The women cheered and urged her to wish upon the bird, but she refused; how would a bird so beautiful and vain, protect her against her enemies? Shamma, the wife of Sultan Sarhan of the Hilaley tribe, wished upon it herself that her own

son become his father’s graceful heir and leader of the Arabs. The second was a red bird. It plunged down pow-erfully and quarrelled with the birds by the lake until only it was able to drink. Again the women urged Khadra and again she refused; her son would not take his place by force. This time, Prince Ghanem’s wife wished upon it, that her son be as powerful. Next, a beautiful green bird flew, creat-ing wonders in its flight to the lake. It sauntered in its green robe, and the women marvelled at its beauty. Here, the wife of the tribe’s judge and interpreter of the Quran, Zayan, wished that her son be as honourable and glorious as this bird. Finally two strong black birds flew down, the light shining brightly off their faces despite their ‘raisin-like darkness’ (samaar

zabeeby). The women watched in awe as the birds made it to the pond, the master pursued by a follower, as all the birds made way for them. The red bird tried to retrieve its position at the lake, but was scared away with a peck of the black bird’s beak.

This was Khadra’s bird. She wished, despite its color, for a son as strong and charismatic, a noble warrior to unite and protect the Arabs.

And so it was that the gates of heav-en were open, and that the story of the dark visaged Salamah, Barakat or Abuzeid El Hilaley, as he was named by different tribes upon his many ad-mirable conquests, began. So also was the prediction of the births of Diab Ibn Ghanem the envious cousin (Red bird), Hassan, Sultan Sarhan’s son and Zeydan Ibn Zayan, the righteous judge’s son.

This, like many episodes of dreams, visions and magical apparitions weaves its way through Sirat Al Hi-laleya or Sirat Al ‘Arab as it is often called, preparing us at times, and placing parameters and expectations for the story at others. But reminding us always of that intangible dimension of love, magic, and the metaphysical,

A M

El Sira El Helaleyya Of Past and Present

63

that space where anything is possible, and where rational expectations never dictate actual events. This is an epic that gives as much weight to tactical planning and cunningness as it does to intuition and blind faith. These people that pray to a God they never see, rely on magic in many instances, and believe in the indispensible power of the intuition of their women, whose counsel for tribal decisions on war and migration is as important as stra-tegic considerations.

These are features perhaps common to the Arabs of the day, and thus to many of their epics. Another is the story of the unlikely hero; whether it is in the story of Antar Ibn Shaddad for instance, the slave-turned-warrior, or Abu Zeid’s, of the ‘dark visaged infant, whose birth resulted in his and his mother’s exile on account of her sus-

pected infidelity. Neither ‘fit the heroic bill’ initially, and yet they prove their worthiness as the stories unravel.

Perhaps the heroes’ unlikeliness is an emphasis on their always emerging from the regular people. This makes a possible hero of all those the Sira touches.

What, however, makes the Sira stand out amongst other epics, and why has it lasted in its seemingly ‘full’ form for as many centuries as it has? I will explore a few of the possibilities in this article, namely its historical sig-nificance and its present tradition.

El Sira as Remembrance The main ‘chapters’ of El Reya-

dah (The pioneering journeys) and El Taghriba (The estrangement or mi-gration), of the epic are said to have taken place over the 10th-12th cen-

turies. These represent a history of the conquests of the Arabs, and Abu Zeid’s quest in unifying the Arabian tribes of Najd and Yemen as he treks up through Iraq to Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. El Hilaleyya even-tually also trickle into Morocco, and through Upper Egypt to Sudan and Ethiopia. The tribal coalition grows as they travel from the Island and unite with other tribes through marriages, conquests or the growing army in the quest for greener lands of Tunis al Khadraa.

However, the story is not merely an account of conquests. It is that of Abu

Opposite- “Eastern Story Teller” - from Ebers, Georg. “Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque .” published in 1878Above- A late 19th century postcard depcit-ing a crowd gathered around a story teller

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Zeid master of disguises, champion of the plights of the poor, but also the stories of Sultan Allam of Iraq, Khalifa Al Zeynati of Tunisia, Aziza and You-nis, and the countless mythical in-stances of love and magic that inter-lace the different stories and events. More importantly, the power of these stories is in the richness of the lan-guage, in the depth of the meanings, and the musicality of the lyrics, and its affect as such.

The historical significance of the Sira lies not only in what it tells, but how it is told. The bearer of the sto-ry, the poet, sha’er al sira, sees him-self as a ‘chosen one’. Whether it is in a dream or vision, most poets be-lieve that the Sira is their calling and that they carry a revelation. They are, however, trained for years before they can ‘deliver’.

The mark of a good poet is not only in the richness of his language, or his ability to know the whole of the Sira by heart, but his ability to captivate-his audience. According to Abdel Rah-man Al Abnudey, who devoted three decades of research to collecting and compiling the Sira, a poet of the Sira is one who knows the whole story by

heart and is able to improvise as he delivers it, tailoring it to his audience. In Qena, the Sira is structured into Quatrains (muraba’at), such that the first and third, and second and fourth verse rhyme separately. This creates a musical rhythm that is accentu-ated by often using the same word to tie two stanzas, each with a differ-ent meaning, creating a cumulative, building effect set in a fluid structure

that facilitates improvisation. This improvisation then, depends

on staying true to the essence of the story, but also being creative with pre-senting it so that it is relevant to its audience. In some cases, this means using creative puns to involve mem-bers of the audience in the story with a play on words, or even recounting events that can relate to contemporary events. Such as focusing on the quali-ties of Diab, as a leader that rose to fame on account of strength and con-quest but effectively almost lead to the internal factions that split the Arabs at the time when the unity was needed most. That is, if one such contemporary Arab leader is available to the collective consciousness of the audience.

A good poet is thus someone who draws upon the audience creating a collective consciousness of them, and ensures that the story is somehow spun through them. Their imagina-tions weaving the maps that guided the journeys from Arabia to Northern Africa, and the music swaying emo-tions back and forth with the long melancholic mawawil of the grieving wife or mother, or the short emphatic verses when a moral is being revealed, or the strong beat of the percussion when a war is being waged.

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A past weaved of presentThe Sira’s contemporary nature, its

focus on the details of love and con-quest, betrayal and loyalty and the many layers of good and evil makes it something of the past, as much as it is something of the present or of the future, and the experience as collec-tive as it is intimate.

For the switching of the poet and singer from the narration of events to the internal thoughts that take us deep into the details of the dilemma, sense of defeat, sadness or love of even our least favoured characters, makes us relate to them in spite of ourselves. It exposes a humanity and intimacy that makes us a part of the Sira as much as it becomes a part of us. It Iives through us.

It also lives beyond the immediate experience of listening to it. Since it is sung in a local dialect, verses car-rying morals, prayers of hope, fear or even subversive sentiments can be retrieved or drawn upon in similar situations of everyday life. The expe-riences of Abu Zeid, Zeynati, Khadra Al Sharifa and others, are made inti-mate and not so much larger than life.

In truth however, the Sira’s audi-ences have dwindled. Once sung in cafes, weddings, and cultural and so-cial events by those ‘merchants of art’, the interest in such art has decreased greatly. This is the case in Tunis, Su-dan, the Egyptian Delta, and even areas of Upper Egypt. Save for Qena where Al Abnudey has championed its collection in an attempt to preserve not only an important aspect of our heritage, but his own favourite experi-ence as a child. It is what he wishes to leave the world with most. He leaves it preserved in recordings on the ra-dio, cassette tapes, TV and hopefully a research museum dedicated to the Sira in Qena. For the Sira cannot and must not be written.

Given that all these factors have contributed to its lasting as long as it has, will it endure as such a ‘live’ experience whilst recorded? Growing

richer, evolving with time, rather than remaining a separate interest of re-searchers or museum infatuates.

El Sira todayIn an attempt to both begin and end

this article, I went on frantic efforts to compare the different aspects of the Al Abnudey’s oral collection sung by Sayed Al Daw and Jaber Abu Hussein to others, ‘verifying’ family trees and dates. I was eager to know the true justification for the Hilaleys’ trip to Tunis; was it truly driven by famine and an added excuse to avenge the killing of members of their lineage, or was it, as it is in the Tunisian version, the quest to Arabise Tunis. It took me little time to realise that every people needed its hero; and that, ultimately determined how the story would be told, as an epic of its peoples.

In my short abandoning of the oral epic that I knew and loved, in search for the ‘truth’, I defied all this Sira represented. That history doesn’t move in straight lines, that good and evil are not absolute, that no event is unquestionable, and most pertinently that the truth is multi-layered, multi-faceted and that our reactions to it vary and shape it with time and his-tory. And that is why the Sira must

not be written. It cannot be linearized, simplified or mainstreamed; left to the whim, context and interpretation of its writers.

It, much like most of these epics, draws upon its audience: us. It is a recreation of our past, with elements of the present. It is indeed a legacy, not of what they lived and when, but how to live, and why...

I can only hope, for our generation bred in institutions, whose creativ-ity has been cultivated by discipline, that this experience urges us to delve deeper into our souls, and stretch out there to find others like it. Rath-er than wait for it to present itself as a sculpted rationalized reality that makes ‘sense’.

If anything, this story, its events, its dynamic spirit, its legacy gives us more to struggle for.

1- A Story-teller reciting from the “Arabian Nights.” from Sladen, Douglas. “Oriental Cairo: the city of the ‘Arabian Nights’” pub-lished in 19112-”Raconteur Arabe”- a late 19th century postcard depicting a story teller3- AbdelRahman Al Abnudey recites the epic along with the singing of Sayed Al Daw and Jaber Abu Hussein at Beit al Suhaimi in Ra-madan.

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A past weaved of presentThe Sira’s contemporary nature, its

focus on the details of love and con-quest, betrayal and loyalty and the many layers of good and evil makes it something of the past, as much as it is something of the present or of the future, and the experience as collec-tive as it is intimate.

For the switching of the poet and singer from the narration of events to the internal thoughts that take us deep into the details of the dilemma, sense of defeat, sadness or love of even our least favoured characters, makes us relate to them in spite of ourselves. It exposes a humanity and intimacy that makes us a part of the Sira as much as it becomes a part of us. It Iives through us.

It also lives beyond the immediate experience of listening to it. Since it is sung in a local dialect, verses car-rying morals, prayers of hope, fear or even subversive sentiments can be retrieved or drawn upon in similar situations of everyday life. The expe-riences of Abu Zeid, Zeynati, Khadra Al Sharifa and others, are made inti-mate and not so much larger than life.

In truth however, the Sira’s audi-ences have dwindled. Once sung in cafes, weddings, and cultural and so-cial events by those ‘merchants of art’, the interest in such art has decreased greatly. This is the case in Tunis, Su-dan, the Egyptian Delta, and even areas of Upper Egypt. Save for Qena where Al Abnudey has championed its collection in an attempt to preserve not only an important aspect of our heritage, but his own favourite experi-ence as a child. It is what he wishes to leave the world with most. He leaves it preserved in recordings on the ra-dio, cassette tapes, TV and hopefully a research museum dedicated to the Sira in Qena. For the Sira cannot and must not be written.

Given that all these factors have contributed to its lasting as long as it has, will it endure as such a ‘live’ experience whilst recorded? Growing

richer, evolving with time, rather than remaining a separate interest of re-searchers or museum infatuates.

El Sira todayIn an attempt to both begin and end

this article, I went on frantic efforts to compare the different aspects of the Al Abnudey’s oral collection sung by Sayed Al Daw and Jaber Abu Hussein to others, ‘verifying’ family trees and dates. I was eager to know the true justification for the Hilaleys’ trip to Tunis; was it truly driven by famine and an added excuse to avenge the killing of members of their lineage, or was it, as it is in the Tunisian version, the quest to Arabise Tunis. It took me little time to realise that every people needed its hero; and that, ultimately determined how the story would be told, as an epic of its peoples.

In my short abandoning of the oral epic that I knew and loved, in search for the ‘truth’, I defied all this Sira represented. That history doesn’t move in straight lines, that good and evil are not absolute, that no event is unquestionable, and most pertinently that the truth is multi-layered, multi-faceted and that our reactions to it vary and shape it with time and his-tory. And that is why the Sira must

not be written. It cannot be linearized, simplified or mainstreamed; left to the whim, context and interpretation of its writers.

It, much like most of these epics, draws upon its audience: us. It is a recreation of our past, with elements of the present. It is indeed a legacy, not of what they lived and when, but how to live, and why...

I can only hope, for our generation bred in institutions, whose creativ-ity has been cultivated by discipline, that this experience urges us to delve deeper into our souls, and stretch out there to find others like it. Rath-er than wait for it to present itself as a sculpted rationalized reality that makes ‘sense’.

If anything, this story, its events, its dynamic spirit, its legacy gives us more to struggle for.

1- A Story-teller reciting from the “Arabian Nights.” from Sladen, Douglas. “Oriental Cairo: the city of the ‘Arabian Nights’” pub-lished in 19112-”Raconteur Arabe”- a late 19th century postcard depicting a story teller3- AbdelRahman Al Abnudey recites the epic along with the singing of Sayed Al Daw and Jaber Abu Hussein at Beit al Suhaimi in Ra-madan.

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A Trip from Cannes to Si Khalil

Regardless of the rea-son, the important thing is that cir-

cumstances - happy ones certainly - obliged me to attend a conference that was being held in the city of Cannes; the most fa-mous and renowned Euro-pean summer resort. What grandeur and what beauty! Beautiful people, beautiful cars, buildings, beaches, streets and cafes! I sat in the terrace of the Carlton Hotel (no advertising intended). Teeming with the world’s richest and most glamorous people, it does not need to be promoted in my humble article. I asked for a cup of cof-fee and a few minutes later the waitress brought me my coffee in a tiny cup- matching the size of her uniform- for which I paid the price you would pay for a three-course meal for you and your family in a typical Cairo restau-rant! I forgot the matter and sat looking around me at the blue waters and sky, the green trees and the beauty of the ladies, swimming and walking on the famous promenade of La Croisette, competing in beauty and elegance, while the sun played on their perfect figures covering them in a magical bronze, which only served to enhance their beau-ty. Spectacular cars completed the picture as they moved before me, one gem after the other; from Bentley and Rolls-Royce sedans to Maserati and Ferrari sports cars, as for the poor, you will find them in their Mercedes or BMWs. As for me, I arrived in a taxi.

Amidst this splendor, I sat finishing my two-sip cup of coffee, and do you know what the scene reminded me of? Shubra, yes, the district of Shubra in good old Egypt – can you imagine?

Shubra – that crowded, noisy district. I remember that a few years ago, the residents of Cairo would blanche at the fact that Shubra had reached a height of 5 million people, in other words the same size as the Kingdom of Denmark!

Today, in shock, we state that Shubra has reached 9 million people, this time the size of Austria. I am seriously worried that in a few years time, it will reach the size of the whole Euro-pean Union, in which case the shock would positively kill me.

The Shubra I remem-bered with my coffee at La Croisette was different. It was the Shubra that I had read about, and seen

pictures of, with its lush fields and tree-lined streets. I thought that if I went back in time and sat in one of the cafés of Shubra in the 70s of the 19th century, I would wit-ness a scene as splendid as the one in Cannes. Shubra in the 19th century was a place for outings and sports, where you could see thoroughbred horses in its main street – which you could count as the Ferraris of the day – beauti-ful carriages pulled by proud horses – those being the Rolls Royces of the time – preceded by footmen clearing their path dressed in the finest livery to add to the splendor of the scene. The carriages carry the elites of society, princes and pachas, princesses and hanems, who might lack the bronze tan but not the beauty or magical allure.

Shubra Street, any crossing of which today is considered an attempt at suicide; you could either be knocked over by a microbus racing down the road in the wrong direction, or suffocate from the noxious fumes from the neighboring cars, or at least suffer a nervous breakdown from the in-cessant car honks and rowdy microphones of the nearby cassette shops; Shubra Street that came to my mind that day, was the tree-lined street shaded by sycamore trees planted in the era of Mohamed Ali Pacha, watered daily by the municipality, with great palaces gracing its sides. Pal-aces such as that of Mohamed Ali, and that of Ingo Hanem the widow of Said Pacha, and the beautifully ornamented Chikolany Palace, renowned for its rare statues.

B A S. T T B S M

was being held in the city

Today, in shock, we state

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A Trip from Cannes to Si Khalil

Regardless of the rea-son, the important thing is that cir-

cumstances - happy ones certainly - obliged me to attend a conference that was being held in the city of Cannes; the most fa-mous and renowned Euro-pean summer resort. What grandeur and what beauty! Beautiful people, beautiful cars, buildings, beaches, streets and cafes! I sat in the terrace of the Carlton Hotel (no advertising intended). Teeming with the world’s richest and most glamorous people, it does not need to be promoted in my humble article. I asked for a cup of cof-fee and a few minutes later the waitress brought me my coffee in a tiny cup- matching the size of her uniform- for which I paid the price you would pay for a three-course meal for you and your family in a typical Cairo restau-rant! I forgot the matter and sat looking around me at the blue waters and sky, the green trees and the beauty of the ladies, swimming and walking on the famous promenade of La Croisette, competing in beauty and elegance, while the sun played on their perfect figures covering them in a magical bronze, which only served to enhance their beau-ty. Spectacular cars completed the picture as they moved before me, one gem after the other; from Bentley and Rolls-Royce sedans to Maserati and Ferrari sports cars, as for the poor, you will find them in their Mercedes or BMWs. As for me, I arrived in a taxi.

Amidst this splendor, I sat finishing my two-sip cup of coffee, and do you know what the scene reminded me of? Shubra, yes, the district of Shubra in good old Egypt – can you imagine?

Shubra – that crowded, noisy district. I remember that a few years ago, the residents of Cairo would blanche at the fact that Shubra had reached a height of 5 million people, in other words the same size as the Kingdom of Denmark!

Today, in shock, we state that Shubra has reached 9 million people, this time the size of Austria. I am seriously worried that in a few years time, it will reach the size of the whole Euro-pean Union, in which case the shock would positively kill me.

The Shubra I remem-bered with my coffee at La Croisette was different. It was the Shubra that I had read about, and seen

pictures of, with its lush fields and tree-lined streets. I thought that if I went back in time and sat in one of the cafés of Shubra in the 70s of the 19th century, I would wit-ness a scene as splendid as the one in Cannes. Shubra in the 19th century was a place for outings and sports, where you could see thoroughbred horses in its main street – which you could count as the Ferraris of the day – beauti-ful carriages pulled by proud horses – those being the Rolls Royces of the time – preceded by footmen clearing their path dressed in the finest livery to add to the splendor of the scene. The carriages carry the elites of society, princes and pachas, princesses and hanems, who might lack the bronze tan but not the beauty or magical allure.

Shubra Street, any crossing of which today is considered an attempt at suicide; you could either be knocked over by a microbus racing down the road in the wrong direction, or suffocate from the noxious fumes from the neighboring cars, or at least suffer a nervous breakdown from the in-cessant car honks and rowdy microphones of the nearby cassette shops; Shubra Street that came to my mind that day, was the tree-lined street shaded by sycamore trees planted in the era of Mohamed Ali Pacha, watered daily by the municipality, with great palaces gracing its sides. Pal-aces such as that of Mohamed Ali, and that of Ingo Hanem the widow of Said Pacha, and the beautifully ornamented Chikolany Palace, renowned for its rare statues.

B A S. T T B S M

was being held in the city

Today, in shock, we state

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At the time, society had not yet realized the dangers of hashish, and partaking of it was only a minor offence. Consequently there existed in Shubra, a café known as Si Khalil that was frequented by members of the elite who had a taste for hashish. The café became famous in its own right, to such an extent that one of its customers came up with a few lines of verse in its favor.

Everything can be found in Egypt

but Si Khalil’s is something else

They have the finest drugs

and the hashish that has no match

Back to 2009, hashish has been prohibited, and Shubra has reached its current state of despair; Si Khalil is dead, and so is the palace that is the topic of this account; Al No-zha Palace (Nozha meaning an excursion). The palace was situated on the western end of Shubra Street, and includ-ed a lush garden on the eastern perimeter of the street, whereby the west and north of the palace were wider and it was rightfully named as a place for a happy excursion.

Most sources agree that Al Nozha was built circa 1858, they are however, contradictory on the history of its own-ership; some tell us that Said Pacha bought the palace from Monsieur Pacifique Henri de la Porte (1815-1877), the French Consul in Egypt, and then extended the pal-ace’s grounds and buildings. Other sources tell us that Said Pacha built the palace himself. There are documents which endorse the latter opinion, such as a letter dated December 20th, 1861 addressed to the General Ammu-nition Stores of Egypt, requesting gunpowder to use as explosives to break down the building blocks needed to build Al Nozha Palace. We also have a letter dated January 16th,1861 to the stables in Shebin, asking about the price of four horses that were taken for the purpose of culti-vating the palace grounds. The documents also show that Messrs. Biatolli and Estolli were part of the construction team involved in the building of the palace. Another letter issued by the Works Commissioner at Kasr El Nil regard-

Opposite- Shubrah avenue, home of Al Nozha palace1- A Harper’s Bazaar caricature of Sir Stephen Cave who came to Egypt in December 1875 at the head of a delegation surveying the eco-nomic status of the country and stayed at Al Nozha Palace2- King Amadeo I of Spain (then Duke ofAosta) stayed at Al Nozha Palace in 1869

كل شىء فى مصر يوجد إال قهوة سى خلـيلوالحشيش مالوش مثيل الكيوف فيها نضيــفه

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ing the fee for the building of Al Nozha Palace on the 24th of January 1859, supports the opinion that the palace was built by Said Pacha.

On the other hand, the memoirs of Abdel Hamid Bek Nafei, a contemporary of Said Pacha, tell us that the pal-ace was purchased by Egypt’s ruler from de la Porte then expanded and refurbished. Said Pacha added two sepa-rate wings, each three floors high, connected by a smaller square building, standing on columns, which composed the entrance to the palace and was topped by an oval dome. The palace was built with the finest materials and work-manship, and was a harmonious combination of eastern and western styles.

Said Pacha was enthralled with the palace, and eager to spend much time there. The first mention I found of a formal reception at the palace was in November 1861 held in honor of the Comte de Chambord, who later became Henry V the King of France, he arrived in Cairo on Novem-ber 12th, 1861 and was received at Al Nozha Palace. After the Count, came the Duke; in December 1862 the Duke of Brabant, heir to the Belgian throne, who was later to become Leopold II of Belgium, was received at the palace.

The Duke did not stay at the palace long and quickly left on a Nile cruise in the personal yacht of the Egyptian viceroy (wali) to see the antiquities of the Egyptian south. The count, however, stayed at the palace and Dr.Stacquez,

who accompanied him, gave a good account of the palace in its early days. He said that the walls were covered in elegant wallpaper, and that he saw the first and last fire-place in any palace in Cairo. The bedrooms had beautiful curtains on the windows, which were threaded with pure silver decorations. It is amusing that Mister Eliakim, one of the most famous jewelers in Egypt in the 19th century made a fortune when he bought the decorations of the cur-tains in a public auction thinking they were metal, only to discover that they were pure silver.

The important thing about the description of the palace, is that it totally negates the theory that it was used to for-mally receive guests beginning from the era of Khedive Is-mail, and proves that it was receiving important and high level guests to Egypt since its early days in the era of Said Pacha. By the way, at the time, the guard of the palace was called Selim Soliman (an unimportant piece of information that was still interesting to discover).

Another MusaferkhanaWe first hear of the palace in the era of Ismail Pacha,

one month after his succession to the throne, whereby he issued a decree on February 19th 1863 to Mostafa Pacha Al Keridly, the governor of Egypt, requesting that Al Nozha Palace be given to Touson Pacha, son of Said Pacha, who did not have a residence in Egypt. From this, we under-stand that Said Pacha had built or acquired the palace as a formal government building, consequently on his death, it was bequeathed to his successor and was not included in his personal legacy.

Our attention is then drawn to the palace on the histori-cal occasion of the visit of Ottoman Sultan Abdel Aziz on Sunday April 12th, 1863. The Sultan did not remain for long, but Al Nozha, despite its small size, impressed him so much with its fine architecture and sculpture, that he ordered some artists who were with him at the time, to draw a replica of the palace design to enable him to build his own version on the shores of the Bosphourous.

Anyone with historical awareness knows about the leg-endary celebration given by Khedive Ismail in November 1869 on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal, and how he quickly built the Gezira Palace to host the Em-press Eugenie. So many stories have been told about these events. Let us leave Al Gezira and its fairytales aside and concentrate on Al Nozha. This palace also played a part in hosting during the celebrations; Duke Amadeo D’Aosta, son of the King of Italy, resided there with his wife the Duchess, and before the month was out, the palace wel-comed the heir to the throne of Holland as well.

In the same year, Khedive Ismail built the first zoo in

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Egypt at the Kasr El Aali (High Palace), and then moved it to Nozha Palace for some time – or more likely to the lands connected to the palace, which were divided and sold at the end of the era of the Khedive’s lavish reign.

In such a way, Al Nozha Palace was transformed into a palace for hosting guests, and became known as “mosafer khana” (a place for hosting travelers), separate from the “mosafer khana” where Khedive Ismail was born, which was burnt down in 1998 when the residents of the area decided to burn the rubbish that lined the area surround-ing it!

Between Katkhuda and SharifOnce more, we return to discuss the ownership of the

palace. According to Elias Al Ayouby – one of the most famous historians of the era of Khedive Ismail – the palace was owned by the Khedive at the time of the visit of the Sultan. Maybe he was not aware of the decree that I men-tioned before. However, it did not remain long in the pos-session of Touson Pacha, and was retrieved by the Khe-dive and replaced with the palace of Ahmed Taher Pacha, which also lies in Shubra, a short time after his succession to the throne.

Khedive Ismail was known to say “I love stones”, referring to his passion for building, and Al Nozha Palace received its fair share of this passion. In 1869 the Khedive ordered Avoscani, an Italian architect, to erect six buildings on the grounds of the palace to serve various purposes. In a docu-ment that dates back to April 23rd 1874, we read that the Khedive spent 2093 bags of gold on the development of Touson Pacha’s palace. It is likely that this was Al Nozha Palace, maybe referred to by the name of its first owner.

Al Nozha Palace continued to prosper and grow in beauty and splendor with each new guest to be received within its walls, and to perform its role with elegance and perfection. In a statement of accounts that I have before me, it shows that a sum of 2184 bags of gold were allocated on March 15th 1875 to refurbish and renovate the palace in readi-ness for its latest guest; Youssef Kamel Pacha, husband to Zeinab Hanem the daughter of Mohamed Ali Pacha.

Yousef Pacha came from the east and Sir Stephen Cave soon after came from the west. Sir Cave came to Egypt in December 1875 at the head of a delegation whose intention was to survey the economic status of Egypt, based on the approval of the Khedive to selling shares of the Suez Canal to England. It was in Al Nozha Palace were he spent many weeks writing his famous report on the deterioration of the

financial status in Egypt and its nearing bankruptcy.It is surprising to learn that Khedive Ismail used to visit

Al Nozha palace often to rest and recuperate, even though he had built and repaired many other palaces, which serves to indicate the distinction of the architecture of the small palace and its attractive location. We also hear of more fa-mous guests to Egypt who were hosted at the palace, from Ibrahim Pacha, the Ottoman Katkhuda (representative) in 1876 to General Ulysses Grant in 1877 (18th president of the United States). The Khedive had thrown a large cel-ebration in Grant’s honor at Abdeen Palace – followed by another for Prince Abdullah, the Sharif of Mecca in 1878, almost a year before the end of his own reign.

Processions, Celebrations and Mixed FeelingsAl Nozha Palace lived its most splendid days of Khedive

Tawfik’s era, when it stood witness to the most exciting and enticing of events. After the previous article in which we told the story of Al Ismailia Palace and the son replac-ing the father on the throne, we come now to the testimony of Al Nozha Palace at this same critical phase in Egypt’s contemporary history.

Khedive Tawfik and his loyal entourage did not have a day of peace or rest from the moment a telegram arrived declaring that Tawfik would replace Ismail as Khedive of Egypt. Their days were spent in the utmost tension and

1- Ottoman Sultan Abdel Aziz who stayed at Al Nozha in 18632- King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy who visited in March 1887

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anxiety, increasing as time went by. Protocol decreed that a delegate would arrive from the Sultan bearing the order. Days and weeks passed into the long, hot summer of 1879, the heat and lethargy seeming more with the delayed ar-rival of the delegate. The worry of Tawfik and his men grew with the spread of rumors that the Sultan wished to renege on the privileges gained by Ismail concerning the indepen-dence of Egypt. Negotiations and discussions abounded between the Sultan and the European powers, until the Sultan was finally forced to succumb to their wishes re-garding maintaining the independence of Egypt. He was, however, able to enforce his wishes concerning trade agreements and loans, reclaiming these privileges that Is-mail had grossly exploited to the financial determent of the country leading to the loss of his throne.

News finally came in the form of a telegram on August 4th 1879, announcing the arrival of the Sultan’s delegate Ali Fouad Bek to Cairo, and arrive he did, on the 11th of August in Alexandria, where he was met by Sherif Pacha who accompanied him to Cairo from the train station to Al Nozha Palace where he stayed. Cannons were fired to welcome Ali Fouad, as well as welcoming the decree that he carried.

On the morning of August 14th 1879, a procession went from Al Nozha to the Citadel bearing the decree. Tawfik was already on his way there, the decree was read, and celebrations commenced. Al Ahram newspaper tells us that, “after regaining order, Ali Bek read the decree, which the Khedive graciously accepted, and then Talaat Pacha read the decree once more, and then the Citadel Mosque Sheikh gave a speech in honor of the Khedive, praying for

his safety and prosperity. Cannons were fired a hundred times, then scholars, men of science, sheikhs, consuls and persons of authority paid their respects.”

The guests of Al Nozha Palace continued to come and go. After the military revolt headed by Oraby Pacha on Septem-ber 9th 1881, Khedive Tawfik imagined that taking heed of the warning and assigning Sherif Pacha as Prime Minister would put an end to any turbulence. Then again, the Sultan was watching the events with his eagle eye, and was en-couraged by Oraby’s constant pledges of allegiance, and de-cided to take advantage of the events playing out before him to turn matters in his favor and regain control over Egypt. On October 3rd 1881, Khedive Tawfik received a telegram from the Sultan informing him of a delegation that would arrive in Egypt to investigate the state of affairs, mentioning that it was the right of the Sultan to do so for countries un-der his power. On the ship named Ezz El Din, the delegation arrived on the 6th of October headed by a Darwish Pacha. After a short rest at Ras El Tin in Alexandria, they took the train to Cairo, and were met by the Head of the Khedival Diwan who accompanied them to Al Nozha Palace. On the following day, the delegation visited the Khedive at Ismailia Palace where he resided, then returned to Al Nozha Palace, where he visited them on the same day.

In February 1881, Archduke Rudolph, Crown Prince of Austria, visited Egypt. Khedive Tawfik held a grand recep-tion for him at Al Nozha Palace where he was staying. The Archduke remained in Egypt for a couple of months where I believe he could have met Mary Vestera, the daughter of an Austrian diplomat who was posted in Egypt at the time. After a romance that lasted for a couple of years, the two were found dead in Mayerling, Austria, in what famously came to be known as the “Mayerling Incident”. It is said that they either committed a double suicide or were mur-dered. The story has been a perpetual mystery ever since, and has provided material for countless books and films.

Exit the Ottomans and enter the British!It seems that Al Nozha Palace knew that one day, in

the distant future, it would be turned into a school, and wished to practice first. So, for a short interlude, in Feb-ruary 1882, the two princes Abbas Hilmi and Mohamed Ali Tawfik, the sons of the Khedive took their daily lessons there for a few months, and then it was used as a palace for guests once more, but not for long.

Many interesting and exciting events unfold, with impe-rialism casting its greedy eyes on Egypt until the climax occurred; the British military invaded the country, and Khedive Tawfik returned to his capital on September 25th

1- Henri, Comte de Chambord (later King Henri V of France) visited Al Nozha in 18612 - Lord Dufferin who was sent to write a report on the Egyptian state of affairs in 1882

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1882, under the protection of the invading army. He exag-gerated his welcome of them to the extent that he ordered that General Wolseley, leader of the army, be hosted at Ab-deen Palace. As for the Duke of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria, he ordered that Al Nozha Palace be assigned to him. The Palace might have been small in comparison to Abdeen Palace or the (Aali) High Palace, but we read in the Egyptian Gazette that the Duke stayed at the palace with the Duke of Teck – one of his relatives and a member of his entourage – which signifies that the size of the palace is a relative matter.

Exit the Ottomans and enter the British! Lord Dufferin, the British Ambassador, was sent to Egypt to investigate affairs and write a report. Just like his predecessors, he arrived in Alexandria and was taken to Ras Al Tin for some rest and lunch, and then rode the train to Cairo where he was met by Zul Fikar Pacha, who accompanied him to Al Nozha Palace. He immediately went to visit the Khedive at Al Gezira Palace amidst a large procession surrounded by British cavalry. Canons were fired when he left the palace and on his return, all the pomp and circumstance only served to reinforce the idea that the British were now of utmost authority and importance in Egypt.

On the evening of the same day, the Khedive repaid the visit as per the regulations of protocol, which never ceases to confuse me; talks between the two men are over and the meeting is concluded and within the hour they start a new visit – what do they talk about, and what other matters do they find to discuss?

�ird Time’s a CharmAl Nozha Palace did not only host politicians from the

east and the west, but also welcomed members of the royal family as well. When Prince Hussein Kamel returned to Egypt after he had left with his father Khedive Ismail, his brother hosted him at Al Nozha Palace with his family for a short period in April 1884. This is probably when dis-putes with his first wife Princess Ain Al Hayat Ahmed with whom he lived at that time in his palace in Giza reached their peak – sources tell us that he divorced her in 1885. On another note, you will find that Hussein Kamel named the school that was opened at Al Nozha Palace after his brother, when he visited it in 1916, one good turn deserves another, even after 32 years!

There is also a ministerial letter to a Mr. Angorton, in-forming him that Al Nozha Palace was at his pleasure for his visit in August 1884, however, I have never been able to find out the occupation or nationality of this Mr. Angor-ton! But it seems that the palace did not have a day of rest

during this time, for after the departure of the first man, General Wolseley took up residence there in September of the same year, when he passed by Egypt on his way to Khartoum.

Another guest to Al Nozha Palace whom I found docu-mented, was the Crown Prince of Italy, later to become King Victor Emmanuel III. The Egyptian government bought special furnishings for Al Nozha Palace on the oc-casion of his visit in March 1887. It is strange that Victor Emmanuel visited Egypt a second time while he was king in the 30s and came a third time in exile after he was de-throned in 1948 –well, third time’s a charm!

�e TawfikiaTime passes and life goes on, and we find the allure of

Al Nozha Palace fading and information about it getting more and more scarce. Many sources claim that it was turned into a school by 1886, but the document mention-ing the visit of the Crown Prince of Italy in March 1887 make this an impossibility and shows that the palace still hosted guests at that time. There are also documents that show that money for the renovation of the palace from Oc-tober 18th 1882 to January 9th 1887, was paid by the Public Works Ministry, but another document dated Sep-tember 10th 1888, shows money paid for renovation was by the Ministry of Education, which might point to it being turned into a school at the time.

There is also a letter written by the Minister of Education to the Minister of Finance regarding the transformation of Al Nozha Palace into a school in 1888, whereby he in-formed him that the teaching school that was established in 1880 in Azbakeya would be moved to Al Nozha Palace in Shubra on the 23rd of September 1888. There were cel-ebrations for the formal opening of the school on the 8th of October 1888, and teaching commenced on December 7th of the same year.

The Ministry of Education reformed the grounds; re-

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moving the stables, the waterwheel and the garden irriga-tion systems. Classrooms were built in the northern and southern ends of the garden, but the main palace build-ings were left as they were. It was just as if Al Nozha Palace had removed its grand ball-gown and donned its workers’ uniform in readiness for heavy labor! The school opened with 29 students and was known as the teaching school until 1916 when it was visited by Sultan Hussein Kamel, who named it after his brother, and so it was known from that day till today as Al Tawfikia, its first headmaster being Moguel Bek, and its first Egyptian Headmaster being Mr. Mohamed Al Husseiny in 1925.

’89 and ‘98Perhaps the days of glory for Al Nozha Palace had ended

from the perspective of it being a palace hosting guests of great stature and importance and holding splendid cel-ebrations in their honor. From the perspective of having a valuable and worthy role, however, Al Nozha still had much to give; Al Tawfikia School was to become one of the most prominent and renowned of schools in Egypt. If you look at the list of students’ names who graduated from the school in the first half of the 20th century, you will find many famous and prominent figures from all fields of life. The names include: Abdel Khalek Tharwat Pacha, Mohamed Mahmoud Pacha, Abdel Fattah Yehia Pacha (members of government), Wissa Wassif Bek, Abdel Salam Fahmy Pa-

cha (members of parliament), Morcos Hanna Pacha, Hafez Hassan Pacha, Kamel Sedky Pacha, Helmy Eissa Pacha, Tawfik Doss Pacha, Salib Samy Pacha, Hafez Afifi Pacha (ministers), Aziz El Masry Pacha, Mahmoud Sedky Pacha (Governor of Cairo), Naguib Mahfouz Pacha (famous doc-tor) and tens of others.

I was confused with my investigations into the date of building of Al Nozha Palace as well as confused with the date of it being turned into a school, but the story of de-molishing the palace nearly blew my mind!! Not because it was difficult to find information on, but because it came at a time when all those concerned with Cairo believed that the era of demolishing beautiful old buildings and palaces out of mere ignorance had passed. They were optimistical-ly looking forward to the implementation of plans to reno-vate and refurbish many of the buildings to reclaim their former glory. However, a strange decree in 1989 ordered the palace’s demolition, and with it were demolished the hopes of reform and the visions of revived glory. The pro-cess began at the beginning of September 1990, and then followed the demolishing of the annexed buildings in 1995. I can honestly find no reason for this retarded decision and can find no excuse for it!

I have mentioned that Al Nozha Palace was known as “al mosafer khana” and is different to “al mosafer khana” at Al Kasr el Shouq district, where many history books claim the Khedive Ismail was born. Architectural history books also tell us that we lost both at the end of the 20th century, one in 1989 and the other in 1998.

One mosafer khana burnt out of carelessness, and the other demolished out of ignorance – Cairo, when will your children take better care of you?

1- Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and son of Queen Victoria who visited in 18822 - Archduke Rudolph, Crown Prince of Austria whose mysterious death, alongside his lover, Mary Vetsera in 1889, riddled historians and was featured in countless media adaptations. Rudolph stayed at Al Nozha in 1881. Mary lived in Egypt at the time with her father, Baron Albin Vetsera, an Austrian diplomat.

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moving the stables, the waterwheel and the garden irriga-tion systems. Classrooms were built in the northern and southern ends of the garden, but the main palace build-ings were left as they were. It was just as if Al Nozha Palace had removed its grand ball-gown and donned its workers’ uniform in readiness for heavy labor! The school opened with 29 students and was known as the teaching school until 1916 when it was visited by Sultan Hussein Kamel, who named it after his brother, and so it was known from that day till today as Al Tawfikia, its first headmaster being Moguel Bek, and its first Egyptian Headmaster being Mr. Mohamed Al Husseiny in 1925.

’89 and ‘98Perhaps the days of glory for Al Nozha Palace had ended

from the perspective of it being a palace hosting guests of great stature and importance and holding splendid cel-ebrations in their honor. From the perspective of having a valuable and worthy role, however, Al Nozha still had much to give; Al Tawfikia School was to become one of the most prominent and renowned of schools in Egypt. If you look at the list of students’ names who graduated from the school in the first half of the 20th century, you will find many famous and prominent figures from all fields of life. The names include: Abdel Khalek Tharwat Pacha, Mohamed Mahmoud Pacha, Abdel Fattah Yehia Pacha (members of government), Wissa Wassif Bek, Abdel Salam Fahmy Pa-

cha (members of parliament), Morcos Hanna Pacha, Hafez Hassan Pacha, Kamel Sedky Pacha, Helmy Eissa Pacha, Tawfik Doss Pacha, Salib Samy Pacha, Hafez Afifi Pacha (ministers), Aziz El Masry Pacha, Mahmoud Sedky Pacha (Governor of Cairo), Naguib Mahfouz Pacha (famous doc-tor) and tens of others.

I was confused with my investigations into the date of building of Al Nozha Palace as well as confused with the date of it being turned into a school, but the story of de-molishing the palace nearly blew my mind!! Not because it was difficult to find information on, but because it came at a time when all those concerned with Cairo believed that the era of demolishing beautiful old buildings and palaces out of mere ignorance had passed. They were optimistical-ly looking forward to the implementation of plans to reno-vate and refurbish many of the buildings to reclaim their former glory. However, a strange decree in 1989 ordered the palace’s demolition, and with it were demolished the hopes of reform and the visions of revived glory. The pro-cess began at the beginning of September 1990, and then followed the demolishing of the annexed buildings in 1995. I can honestly find no reason for this retarded decision and can find no excuse for it!

I have mentioned that Al Nozha Palace was known as “al mosafer khana” and is different to “al mosafer khana” at Al Kasr el Shouq district, where many history books claim the Khedive Ismail was born. Architectural history books also tell us that we lost both at the end of the 20th century, one in 1989 and the other in 1998.

One mosafer khana burnt out of carelessness, and the other demolished out of ignorance – Cairo, when will your children take better care of you?

1- Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and son of Queen Victoria who visited in 18822 - Archduke Rudolph, Crown Prince of Austria whose mysterious death, alongside his lover, Mary Vetsera in 1889, riddled historians and was featured in countless media adaptations. Rudolph stayed at Al Nozha in 1881. Mary lived in Egypt at the time with her father, Baron Albin Vetsera, an Austrian diplomat.

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Ever since Ramsis square lost its king, people have been wondering what the new name will be for the most vital spot in the heart of Cairo. Rumors have been flying left and right about

the square’s new identity, but no official decision has been declared as of yet.

All this made me curious about what the square used to be before Ramsis, and what it was before that… I ended up journeying all the way back to the Roman era, without moving an inch from the square, which has always been popularly known as Bab el Hadid.

Midan el NahdaUnraveling the first layer of history shows us that Ramsis

square was called Midan el Nahda after sculptor Mahmoud Moukhtar’s famous work: Nahdet Masr (Egypt’s Awaken-ing), which was placed at the square in 1927 facing the railway station. Nahdet Masr was later moved in the mid fifties to its new home by the zoo in Giza.

The street name (Ramsis) also went through its share

of changes. It was in fact a channel from the Nile called Tere’at el Ismailia, with a bridge over it called Kobri el Lim-oun. After filling the channel, it was dubbed “Abbas” St. and later renamed “El Malika Nazli” (“Queen Nazli” after King Farouk’s mother), then just “El Malika” (“The Queen”, when she fell out of favor) and finally became “El Nahda” street, after the famous sculptural landmark was placed in front of the railway station.

The colossal statue of King Ramsis II (an idol of late pres-ident Nasser’s) was brought from its original home in Mit Rahina to the square, with a fountain placed at its feet symbolizing the prosperity that the famous King brought to Egypt. The fountain was later removed to add more space for traffic. The heavy traffic and pollution are also what caused the statue itself to be removed decades later, to protect it from environmental factors.

�e World’s Second Railway Station Wins Over the Canal

The idea of building a railway in Egypt was primarily

�e Ever Evolving Bab El HadidNew Face, New Name?

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Ever since Ramsis square lost its king, people have been wondering what the new name will be for the most vital spot in the heart of Cairo. Rumors have been flying left and right about

the square’s new identity, but no official decision has been declared as of yet.

All this made me curious about what the square used to be before Ramsis, and what it was before that… I ended up journeying all the way back to the Roman era, without moving an inch from the square, which has always been popularly known as Bab el Hadid.

Midan el NahdaUnraveling the first layer of history shows us that Ramsis

square was called Midan el Nahda after sculptor Mahmoud Moukhtar’s famous work: Nahdet Masr (Egypt’s Awaken-ing), which was placed at the square in 1927 facing the railway station. Nahdet Masr was later moved in the mid fifties to its new home by the zoo in Giza.

The street name (Ramsis) also went through its share

of changes. It was in fact a channel from the Nile called Tere’at el Ismailia, with a bridge over it called Kobri el Lim-oun. After filling the channel, it was dubbed “Abbas” St. and later renamed “El Malika Nazli” (“Queen Nazli” after King Farouk’s mother), then just “El Malika” (“The Queen”, when she fell out of favor) and finally became “El Nahda” street, after the famous sculptural landmark was placed in front of the railway station.

The colossal statue of King Ramsis II (an idol of late pres-ident Nasser’s) was brought from its original home in Mit Rahina to the square, with a fountain placed at its feet symbolizing the prosperity that the famous King brought to Egypt. The fountain was later removed to add more space for traffic. The heavy traffic and pollution are also what caused the statue itself to be removed decades later, to protect it from environmental factors.

�e World’s Second Railway Station Wins Over the Canal

The idea of building a railway in Egypt was primarily

�e Ever Evolving Bab El HadidNew Face, New Name?

Y E D

77

British. A railway system would provide a convenient link between Europe and India. The proposal of a route begin-ning from Heliopolis and ending in Suez was first present-ed to Egypt’s Viceroy Mohamed Ali, who initially approved it and was later dissuaded by the French who wanted to promote their canal project in its stead. Both proposals were eventually refused at the time.

During the reign of Abbas I (1848-1854), the idea was promoted again and this time approved: the first railway route in Egypt was built between Alexandria and Kafer Eissa (in 1854), making it the first railway in Africa. The route later reached Cairo in 1856. By 1858, the route be-tween Cairo and Suez was built, (it was however removed in 1878 to make way for the Suez Canal project and for reasons of ill-design).

Ramsis square: A port, where ships docked?In today’s hustle and bustle of Ramsis square, it is hard

to imagine that this area was once not only covered with the Nile water, but was actually a port called Al Maqs where

Fatimid (969-1171 AD) ships docked. Until the 13th cen-tury Al-Maqs was situated to the north of what is now Al-Azbakiya. Bab Al-Bahr and Bab Al-Sha’riya were the city gates opening directly onto the river. The name Maqs (meaning taxes) is derived from the area being a customs point at the time. Between Al-Maqs and the quarter which later became known as Bab Al-Luq, the Fatimids estab-lished a belvedere surrounded by a large garden where the Caliph would take in the view and celebrate the opening of the Khalig (gulf) with pomp and splendor at the beginning of the flood season.

In 1899, the Khalig was filled permanently to make way for the Cairo electric tramway, which began to run through what is now Port Said Street. In order to build the Cairo station, a spot was chosen next to the Ismailia Channel (Ramsis street of today) in the very heart of the city. The station, built by British Architect Edward Bans, was inaugurated in 1893.

Opposite - Cairo Central Railway Station, circa 1911above - �e Ismailia channel, or Ramsis street of today.

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Bab el Hadid?Most people assume that Bab el Hadid (Iron Gate) de-

rives its name from the iron gates of the railway station. However, this name predates railways, the Mohamed Ali dynasty and even the Memluk rulers before them. As it turns out, Bab el Hadid was one of the grand gates of Cairo built along Saladin’s wall (built in 1174), specifically in its northwestern section. Its original name was Bab el Bahr (Sea Gate and “Sea”, being in reference to the Nile) as it was a strong iron gate that opened right at the foot of the water at the port of al Maqs. As the Nile receded westward the name was changed from Bab el Bahr to Bab el Hadid.

The gate was demolished in 1847 towards the end of Mo-hamed Ali’s regime, possibly for future public works in the area. Perhaps the only depiction of the gate can be found in the panoramic view illustrated by Edward Lane in his book “Description of Egypt” where it appears at the fore-front of the wall surrounding the northern part of the city (Cairo had grown well beyond Saladin’s wall by the time Lane lived in Egypt during the early 1800s).

The former location of the gate was most probably at what is today the entrance of El Bahr Street from Ramsis Square.

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A Roman BastionBefore Arab rule dominated Egypt, the area of the Fatim-

id port of Al Maqs was referred to as Tendunyas (Um Du-nyan in Arabic). It is assumed that the famous Roman bastion of Tendunyas was the only other known settle-ment in Cairo, next to Babylon (known today as Old Cairo). We are told by John, Bishop of Nikiu who translated the works of Arab historians about the battle that took place in Tendunyas, that Muslim forces stormed through Byzan-tine Egypt and trapped their enemy and sent them fleeing while capturing their fort in this very place:

“Amr (Ibn el Aas –the Arab general) divided his forces into three corps, one of which he posted to the north of Babylon; the second was stationed at Tendunyas (Ramsis square of today) and the third withdrew northwards to He-liopolis, in the hope of tempting the Romans out of their fortifications, upon which the other two corps were to fall on their rear or flank. The maneuver succeeded. …. (T)hey (the Romans) took to their boats and fled down the river. Upon this, the Muslims occupied Tendunyas, the garri-son of which had perished in the battle, except 300 men, who shut themselves up in the fort, whence they retired by boat to Nikiu (south of Menoufeyya governorate today). The taking of Tendunyas was evidently followed by, or syn-onymous with, the taking of the whole city of Misr, except its citadel, which was blockaded.”

Today…The famous site lies now in quite a chaotic state. The

statue of the legendary king who lent the square his name, was moved to its new home at Giza in August of 2006. The spot where he stood is still empty now after more than three years and a makeshift aluminum barrier still sur-rounds the site.

Today, we are waiting to see what new identity will be bestowed on the square. Then again, whatever new name it assumes, it will still always be known as Bab el Hadid.

1- Panoramic view of Cairo, depicting Bab el Hadid at the forefront: From Edward Lane’s Description of Egypt 2-A water carrier (sakka) poses next to “�e Awakening of Egypt” at its original home facing the railway station circa 19303-1898: �e Ismailia canal (Ramsis street of today) runs by the new Railway Station (map from Baedeker’s Guide Book)4- 1885 Before the Edward Bains station was built (map by Wagner and Debes from Baedeker’s Guide Book)5- “Cairo before 1200” Map showing the area of Al Maqs and Bab el Hadid (source: Stanley Lane Poole’s “�e Story of Cairo”)

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املرء تخيل أن تلك البقعة كانت تغطيها يوما ما «املقص» يسمي ميناء وكانت بل النيل! مياة ٩٦٩) فيه ترسو الفاطمية الدولة سفن كانت كانت عشر الثالث القرن حتي م). ١١٧١ –أما باالزبكية. اليوم يعرف ما تقع شمال املقص مباشرة يطالن فكانا الشعرية وباب البحر باب الضرائب) (تعني «املقص» وكلمة النهر علي منطقة بإعتبارها املنطقة تلك علي إطالقها مت

جمرك.بعد فيما عرف الذي واحلي املقص بني وما بباب اللوق أنشأ الفاطميون مبني حتيط به حديقة املنظر علي الفاطمي اخلليفة منه يطل واسعة اخلالب للمياة ثم يقوم بفتح «اخلليج» في بداية

موسم الفيضان من كل عام في موكب عظيم.لتمهيد متامًا اخلليج ردم مت ،١٨٩٩ عام في يعرف ما إمتد حتي الذي الترامواى أمام الطريق بناء يتسنى وحتي سعيد. بور بشارع حاليا

ترعة من قريب لها مكان إختيار مت بعد، فيما احلديد السكة مبنى محطة احملطة عام إفتتاح القاهرة ومت قلب االسماعيلية (شارع رمسيس حاليا) في

.١٨٩٢

بـاب احلديــد ؟احلديدية البوابة إلي ترجع احلديد باب تسمية أن الناس معظم يتصور احلديد السكة محطة إنشاء على سابقة التسمية تلك أن إال للمحطة، نفسها! املماليك ولدولة بل علي محمد لعصر أيضا وسابقة بل ومبناها. بناه صالح الذي للسور الكبرى االبواب باب احلديد كان أحد أن احلقيقة الدين األيوبي حول القاهرة في عام ١١٧٤ وفي الناحية الشرقية حتديداً. كان بابًا بالبحر) حيث كان أيضا النيل يسمي البحر (كان باب االصلي إسمه حديديًا ضخمًا يفتح أمام املياة مباشرة في ميناء املقص وعندما تراجعت مياه نهر النيل نحوالغرب مت تغيير أسمه من باب البحر الي باب احلديد.وقد متت رمبا متهيداً باشا، نهاية عهد محمد علي في عام ١٨٤٧ احلديد باب إزالة

لبعض األشغال العامة في املنطقة.رمبا تكون االطاللة الوحيدة املمكنة اآلن علي ما كان يعرف بباب احلديد فقط من خالل املنظر املوجود في كتاب (ادوارد لني) « وصف مصر» حيث يظهر الباب في مقدمة السور احمليط باملنطقة الشمالية ملدينة القاهرة (كانت القاهرة قد منت وأمتدت ملا بعد سور صالح الدين عندما عاش فيها ادوارد لني

في بداية القرن الـ ١٩).واملوقع القدمي لباب احلديد من املرجح أن يكون اليوم هو مدخل شارع البحر

املتفرع من شارع رمسيس.

حصــن رومانــي :قبل الفتح االسالمي ملصر، كانت منطقة ميناء املقص الفاطمي يشار إليها

بــ أم دنيان او Tendunyas ومن املرجح أن احلصن الروماني الشهير ..Tendunyasكان هو األثر الوحيد املعروف في القاهرة إلي جانب حصن بابليون (املعروف

حاليا بالقاهرة القدمية).ويخبرنا االسقف يوحنا – أسقف Nikiu الذي قام بترجمة أعمال املؤرخني العرب وكتاباتهم عن املعركة التي دارت في Tendunyas عندما إجتاح وإستولوا وطردوهم أعدائهم بحصار وقاموا البيزنطية مصر املسلمني جيش

علي حصنهم الذي كان يقع في نفس املكان :

«قسم عمرو بن العاص القائد العربي قواته الي ثالث كتائب، أرسل أحدها الي شمال بابيلون، والثانية متركزت عند Tendunyas (ميدان رمسيس

حاليًا) والثالثة تراجعت الي الشرق ( عني شمس حاليا) آمًال في إغراء الرومان لتطويقهم األخرتان الكتيبتان عليهم تنقض ثم ومن من حصنهم باخلروج الرومان سفنهم وهربوا عن طريق وإستقل املناورة أوتعقبهم.. وقد جنحت العسكرية دولتها إنهارت التي Tendunyas املسلمون وأحتل النهر.. أنفسهم في النار علي أطلقوا الذين الرجال فيما عدا ٣٠٠ من املعركة في املنوفية محافظة (جنوب Nikiu حتي بسفنهم الرومان وتقهقر احلصن. علي االستيالء مع متزامنا Tendunyas علي االستيالء وكان حاليًا)

مدينة مصر كلها فيما عدا قلعتها التي كانت محاصرة.»

اليــوم :املوقع الشهير يعاني اليوم من فوضى عاتية. متثال الفرعون الذي وهب إسمه اجليزة، في محافظة اجلديد مقره الي في أغسطس ٢٠٠٦ نقله مت للميدان واملكان الذي كان يحتله لعقود ظل خاويًا طيلة ٣ سنوات حتيطه حواجز من االملونيوم. ونظل جميعا في إنتظار منحه إسما جديدا أو هوية جديدة غير أنه

سيظل دائما يعرف بباب احلديد.

الصفحة املقابله - محطة السكة احلديد في ١٩١١١- صورة نادرة لباب احلديد كجزء من سور القاهرة إلدوارد لني في كتابة «وصف مصر»

٢- متثال نهضة مصر في موقعه األصلي امام محطة السكة احلديد في عام ١٩٣٠

١

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2020

عما يتساءلون والناس الشهير ميدانه عن رمسيس متثال رحل أن منذ عساه أن يكون االسم اجلديد لتلك البقعة الشديدة احليوية في قلب القاهرة. إنتشرت الشائعات بشأن التسمية اجلديدة للميدان إال أنه لم يعلن بعد عن

قرار رسمي بهذا الشأن.كل هذا دفعني للتساؤل عن شخصية وتاريخ ذلك املكان قبل أن يرتبط برمسيس ومتثال رمسيس. وإنتهي بي املطاف والبحث حتى احلقبة الرومانية،

حيث كان نفس امليدان الذي طاملا عرف بـــ «باب احلديد».

ميدان النهضة :أنه أتخذ عدة أسماء في فترات متعاقبة، امليدان تبني بالبحث عن تاريخ النهضة» وقد أطلق عليه هذا االسم عام ١٩٢٧ عندما كان آخرها «ميدان املقابلة اجلهة في مختار محمود للفنان الشهير مصر نهضة متثال فيه وضع حملطة السكة احلديد والي أن مت نقل التمثال في منتصف اخلمسينات الي مقره

احلالي بجوار حديقة احليوان باجليزة.التاريخ، عبر التغييرات تلك من نصيب ناله اآلخر هو رمسيس شارع «ترعة تسمي النيل من متفرعة قناة يكن سوي لم األمر واقع في فالشارع االسماعيلية» يعلوها كوبري كان يسمي «كوبري الليمون». وعندما مت ردم الترعة فيما بعد أطلق علي الشارع إسم شارع عباس ثم أطلق عليه بعد ذلك شارع امللكة نازلي ثم عرف فقط بشارع «امللكة» (عقب توتر العالقات بني الي متثال محمود النهضة نسبة فاروق ووالدتة) وأخيرا عرف بشارع امللك

مختار الشهير.أما التمثال العمالق للفرعون رمسيس الثاني فقد مت نقله من موطنه ميت الناصر، وقد مت عمل الرئيس جمال عبد امليدان في عهد رهينة ووضعه في الذي ساد عصر الرخاء التمثال تعبيرا عن أمام قدمي للمياة نافورة وحوض

املميزة السمة أصبح الذي والزحام التكدس ومع العظيم. الفرعون ذلك ثم السيارات، ملرور املكان الفساح املياة وحوض النافورة إزالة مت للميدان أعقب ذلك قرار نقل متثال رمسيس هو اآلخر حلمايته من آثار التلوث البيئي

الناجت عن االزدحام املروري الهائل..

مشروع مد ثاني خط للسكة احلديد في العالم ينتصر علي مشروع حفر القناة :

كانت فكرة مد خط سكة حديد في مصر فكرة بريطانية في األساس، فنظام السكة احلديد كان سيوفر وسيلة ربط جيدة بني أوروبا والهند. واالقتراح مبد الي األمر أول في تقدميه والسويس مت اجلديدة تربط بني مصر سكة حديد محمد علي باشا والي مصر الذي وافق عليه مبدئيا ثم عزف عن الفكرة نتيجة إقناع الفرنسيني له بجدوي مشروع القناة بدال منه. إال أن كال املشروعني مت

رفضهما في نهاية األمر في تلك الفترة.وفي مدة حكم اخلديوي عباس األول (١٨٤٨-١٨٥٤) مت تقدمي الفكرة مرة أخرى ومتت املوافقة عليها هذه املرة : مد أول خط سكة حديد في مصر يربط بني االسكندرية وكفر عيسى عام ١٨٥٤ ليكون بذلك أول خط سكة

حديد في أفريقيا وقد مت مد ذلك اخلط بعدها حتي القاهرة في عام ١٨٥٦وفي عام ١٨٥٨ كان خط السكة احلديد بني القاهرة والسويس قد مت بناءه فعال (غير أنه مت الغاءه في ١٨٧٨ بسبب عيوب في التصميم والفساح الطريق

أمام مشروع قناة السويس).

ميدان رمسيس : ميناء ترسو فيه السفن ؟أمام تلك الفوضى املرورية التى نراها اليوم في ميدان رمسيس يصعب علي

عما يتساءلون والناس الشهير ميدانه عن رمسيس متثال رحل أن املميزة منذ السمة أصبح الذي والزحام التكدس ومع العظيم. الفرعون ذلك

باب الحديدبقلم ياسمني الضرغامي

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أحداث معاصرة وثيقة الصلة باملستمعني كأن يركز على صفات دياب كقائد اشتهر بقوته وانتصاراتة غير انة تسبب فى حدوث انقسامات كثيرة بني العرب عندما كانت الظروف تتطلب ان يتوحدوا، هذا مثاًل فى حالة اذا كان هناك

زعيم عربى معاصر تنطبق علية تلك الصفات.وخلق املستمعني إنتباه في جذب ينجح هو شخص إذن والشاعر الراوي شعور عام لديهم بأن أحداث السيرة الهاللية هي صورة لواقع يعايشونه فعاًل. وحتي العرب جزيرة من وفتوحات رحالت في اخليال في معه فيصحبهم شمال أفريقيا من خالل موسيقى شجية. فهذا موال حزين ألم ثكلى، وتلك أبيات حماسية حتكي عن إنتصار اخلير علي الشر، وهذه نغمة قوية االيقاع

عندما تنشب احلرب.

نسج املاضي ليعبر عن احلاضر :إن واقعية السيرة الهاللية، وتركيزها علي تفاصيل املشاعر املختلفة كاحلب واالنتصار واخليانة والوالء والطبقات املختلفة من اخلير والشر جتعلها جزءا من املاضي يروى، كما جتعلها أيضا معبرة بشكل ما عن احلاضر واملستقبل فهى

في النهاية تعكس خبرات حياتية بشكل حميمي وعام في ذات الوقت.عندما يخرج الشاعر والراوي من احليز الضيق لسرد أحداث السيرة الهاللية إلي التحدث عن األفكار التي تدور في عقل شخوص الرواية فأننا نشعر معهم بالتورط في مأزق ما أو الشعور بالهزمية واالنكسار أو احلزن أو احلب مما يجعلنا نشعر بحميمية جتاه تلك الشخصيات حتي إننا نتصور أننا جزء من السيرة

الهاللية نعايشها ونعرف أبطالها ويعرفوننا.والسيرة الهاللية تتخطي حدود مجرد االستماع اليها، فالراوي يتغنى بها باللهجة احمللية ملستمعيه وأبياتها تتضمن حكم وأمثال عن االمل واخلير أو املواقف في منها أي إستخدام للناس الهدامة ميكن املشاعر بعض حتى عن لها تعرض التي تلك مثل مواقف اليومية، حياتهم بها التي حتفل املختلفة

أبوزيد أو الزناتي أو خضرة الشريفة وغيرهم من أبطال السيرة.ميكن القول أن جمهور السيرة الهاللية قد تضاءل مع الزمن. فبعد أن كانت االقبال على تراجع الثقافية والتجمعات الزفاف املقاهي وحفالت في تروى هذا النوع من الفن سواء في تونس أو السودان أو دلتا مصر بل وبعض قرى

صعيد مصر أيضا فيما عدا )قنا( حيث عكف ملمح حلفظ محاولة في جمعها على األبنودي هام من تراثنا، فضال عن كونه يعتبرها شخصيا جتربة طفولته، في عاشها جتربه وأروع أهم االستماع إلي شاعر الربابه يروي السيرة الهاللية.

وجنع بالفعل االبنودي في حفظ السيرة الهاللية صوتية تسجيل وشرائط إذاعية تسجيالت في بحثي متحف يتأسس أن )ويأمل وتلفزيونية مخصوص للسيرة الهاللية يقام في قنا يومًا ما( فالسيرة الهاللية ال ميكن أن تكتب وال يجب أن

تكتب.. السيرة الهاللية تروى... وإذا كانت السيرة الهاللية قد عاشت حتي اليوم فالفضل يرجع إلي تلك العوامل السابقة كلها.. املباشر علي بتأثيرها ولكن هل ستظل محتفظة إذا كانت مسجلة التقليدي جمهور مستمعيها الناس مع تفاعلها سيستمر هل شرائط؟ علي أم دائما احلال كان كما زمانهم مع وتطورها

تصبح مادة بحثية لهواة التراث واملتاحف؟السيرة الهاللية اليوم :

املقالة، لتلك بداية ونهاية في محاولتي وضع قمت بجهود مضنية ملقارنة األوجة املختلفة ملجموعة األبنودي عندما يغنيها أتبني أن محاولة آخرون، يغنيها وعندما أبوحسني« و»جابر الضو« »سيد تواريخ األحداث وشجرة عائلة الشخصيات فيها. كنت حريصة علي معرفة السبب احلقيقي وراء رحلة الهاللي إلي تونس، هل كانت حقا بسبب املجاعة أم التذرع باملجاعة للرحيل والسعي لالنتقام من قاتلو بعض أفراد عائلته، أما طبقا للنسخة التونسية من السيرة الهاللية فكان رحيل الهاللي إليها لتعريب

تونس.وأن بهم، اخلاص بطلهم إلي يحتاجون أناس أن كل أدركت ما وسرعان رواية السيرة كانت دائما ما تتمحور حول تلك الفكرة وحتولها الي ملحمة

خاصة بناسها. احلقيقة، عن ألبحث وأحببتها عرفتها التي )املسموعة( امللحمة وأترك فتحّديت كل ما متثله السيرة الهاللية وعرفت أن التاريخ ال يتحرك في خطوط مستقيمة، وأن اخلير والشر ليسا مطلقني، وأنه ال يوجد حدث أو واقعة بعيد عن الشك والتساؤالت واألهم أن احلقيقة نفسها لها عدة أوجة ومكونة من

عدة طبقات كما أن ردود أفعالنا جتاهها تتغير تبعا للزمن والظروف... ولهذا كله ال يجب كتابة السيرة الهاللية، فهي صعبة التحديد أوالتبسيط يقدمها ملستمعيه الراوي أو الشاعر لهوى دومًا تركها بل يجب أوالتقييد،

كما يراها.معظم تلك املالحم التي تعتمد علينا نحن جمهورها ومستمعيها، تكون إنعكاسًا ملاضينا مع ضم بعض العناصر املنتمية إلي حاضرنا. إنها حقا أسطورة، وهو - تخبرنا وإمنا فحسب عاشوه ومتي عاشوه وما أبطالها عن تخبرنا ال

األهم - بكيف عاشوا وملاذا.تربت التي األجيال نحن – التجربة تلك تدفعنا أن األمل يحيدوني التاريخية في قوالب جامدة أن نبحث عن جتارب وتعلمت وضع االحداث

مماثلة قد تكون بداخلنا أوحولنا...

عبد الرحمن األبنودي يروي السيرة الهاللية في بيت السحيمي

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أحداث معاصرة وثيقة الصلة باملستمعني كأن يركز على صفات دياب كقائد اشتهر بقوته وانتصاراتة غير انة تسبب فى حدوث انقسامات كثيرة بني العرب عندما كانت الظروف تتطلب ان يتوحدوا، هذا مثاًل فى حالة اذا كان هناك

زعيم عربى معاصر تنطبق علية تلك الصفات.وخلق املستمعني إنتباه في جذب ينجح هو شخص إذن والشاعر الراوي شعور عام لديهم بأن أحداث السيرة الهاللية هي صورة لواقع يعايشونه فعاًل. وحتي العرب جزيرة من وفتوحات رحالت في اخليال في معه فيصحبهم شمال أفريقيا من خالل موسيقى شجية. فهذا موال حزين ألم ثكلى، وتلك أبيات حماسية حتكي عن إنتصار اخلير علي الشر، وهذه نغمة قوية االيقاع

عندما تنشب احلرب.

نسج املاضي ليعبر عن احلاضر :إن واقعية السيرة الهاللية، وتركيزها علي تفاصيل املشاعر املختلفة كاحلب واالنتصار واخليانة والوالء والطبقات املختلفة من اخلير والشر جتعلها جزءا من املاضي يروى، كما جتعلها أيضا معبرة بشكل ما عن احلاضر واملستقبل فهى

في النهاية تعكس خبرات حياتية بشكل حميمي وعام في ذات الوقت.عندما يخرج الشاعر والراوي من احليز الضيق لسرد أحداث السيرة الهاللية إلي التحدث عن األفكار التي تدور في عقل شخوص الرواية فأننا نشعر معهم بالتورط في مأزق ما أو الشعور بالهزمية واالنكسار أو احلزن أو احلب مما يجعلنا نشعر بحميمية جتاه تلك الشخصيات حتي إننا نتصور أننا جزء من السيرة

الهاللية نعايشها ونعرف أبطالها ويعرفوننا.والسيرة الهاللية تتخطي حدود مجرد االستماع اليها، فالراوي يتغنى بها باللهجة احمللية ملستمعيه وأبياتها تتضمن حكم وأمثال عن االمل واخلير أو املواقف في منها أي إستخدام للناس الهدامة ميكن املشاعر بعض حتى عن لها تعرض التي تلك مثل مواقف اليومية، حياتهم بها التي حتفل املختلفة

أبوزيد أو الزناتي أو خضرة الشريفة وغيرهم من أبطال السيرة.ميكن القول أن جمهور السيرة الهاللية قد تضاءل مع الزمن. فبعد أن كانت االقبال على تراجع الثقافية والتجمعات الزفاف املقاهي وحفالت في تروى هذا النوع من الفن سواء في تونس أو السودان أو دلتا مصر بل وبعض قرى

صعيد مصر أيضا فيما عدا )قنا( حيث عكف ملمح حلفظ محاولة في جمعها على األبنودي هام من تراثنا، فضال عن كونه يعتبرها شخصيا جتربة طفولته، في عاشها جتربه وأروع أهم االستماع إلي شاعر الربابه يروي السيرة الهاللية.

وجنع بالفعل االبنودي في حفظ السيرة الهاللية صوتية تسجيل وشرائط إذاعية تسجيالت في بحثي متحف يتأسس أن )ويأمل وتلفزيونية مخصوص للسيرة الهاللية يقام في قنا يومًا ما( فالسيرة الهاللية ال ميكن أن تكتب وال يجب أن

تكتب.. السيرة الهاللية تروى... وإذا كانت السيرة الهاللية قد عاشت حتي اليوم فالفضل يرجع إلي تلك العوامل السابقة كلها.. املباشر علي بتأثيرها ولكن هل ستظل محتفظة إذا كانت مسجلة التقليدي جمهور مستمعيها الناس مع تفاعلها سيستمر هل شرائط؟ علي أم دائما احلال كان كما زمانهم مع وتطورها

تصبح مادة بحثية لهواة التراث واملتاحف؟السيرة الهاللية اليوم :

املقالة، لتلك بداية ونهاية في محاولتي وضع قمت بجهود مضنية ملقارنة األوجة املختلفة ملجموعة األبنودي عندما يغنيها أتبني أن محاولة آخرون، يغنيها وعندما أبوحسني« و»جابر الضو« »سيد تواريخ األحداث وشجرة عائلة الشخصيات فيها. كنت حريصة علي معرفة السبب احلقيقي وراء رحلة الهاللي إلي تونس، هل كانت حقا بسبب املجاعة أم التذرع باملجاعة للرحيل والسعي لالنتقام من قاتلو بعض أفراد عائلته، أما طبقا للنسخة التونسية من السيرة الهاللية فكان رحيل الهاللي إليها لتعريب

تونس.وأن بهم، اخلاص بطلهم إلي يحتاجون أناس أن كل أدركت ما وسرعان رواية السيرة كانت دائما ما تتمحور حول تلك الفكرة وحتولها الي ملحمة

خاصة بناسها. احلقيقة، عن ألبحث وأحببتها عرفتها التي )املسموعة( امللحمة وأترك فتحّديت كل ما متثله السيرة الهاللية وعرفت أن التاريخ ال يتحرك في خطوط مستقيمة، وأن اخلير والشر ليسا مطلقني، وأنه ال يوجد حدث أو واقعة بعيد عن الشك والتساؤالت واألهم أن احلقيقة نفسها لها عدة أوجة ومكونة من

عدة طبقات كما أن ردود أفعالنا جتاهها تتغير تبعا للزمن والظروف... ولهذا كله ال يجب كتابة السيرة الهاللية، فهي صعبة التحديد أوالتبسيط يقدمها ملستمعيه الراوي أو الشاعر لهوى دومًا تركها بل يجب أوالتقييد،

كما يراها.معظم تلك املالحم التي تعتمد علينا نحن جمهورها ومستمعيها، تكون إنعكاسًا ملاضينا مع ضم بعض العناصر املنتمية إلي حاضرنا. إنها حقا أسطورة، وهو - تخبرنا وإمنا فحسب عاشوه ومتي عاشوه وما أبطالها عن تخبرنا ال

األهم - بكيف عاشوا وملاذا.تربت التي األجيال نحن – التجربة تلك تدفعنا أن األمل يحيدوني التاريخية في قوالب جامدة أن نبحث عن جتارب وتعلمت وضع االحداث

مماثلة قد تكون بداخلنا أوحولنا...

عبد الرحمن األبنودي يروي السيرة الهاللية في بيت السحيمي

18

السيرة الهاللية

كانت فكرة البطل الذي ال يتمتع بالصفات املتعارف عليها واضحة أيضا في تلك املالحم، سواء في سيرة عنتر بن شداد العبد األسود الذي حتول الي فارس مغوار شديد البأس، أو أبوزيد الهاللي الذي ولد ببشرة داكنة حتي أن تشكك الناس في نسبه وإتهموا أمه في شرفها ونفوها بعيدا هي ووليدها. عنتر من أي علي األمر أول في تنطبق البطل أو القائد مواصفات تكن لم الهاللي إال أن أحداث السيرة اخلاصة بهما كشفت عن جدارتهم أوأبوزيد

بالبطولة األسطورية التي إرتبطت بهما.ورمبا كانت فكرة البطل ذو املواصفات الغير تقليدية نابعة من كونه ينتمي ولكن محتملني. بأبطال مليئة الهاللية السيرة كانت ولهذا للعامة دائما تري ما الذي جعل السيرة الهاللية تختلف وتتميز عن باقي املالحم وكيف إحتفظت بشكلها ومضمونها لعدة قرون متواصلة ؟ سأحاول هنا أن أبحث

في داللتها التاريخية وما تعنيه في احلاضر..

السيــرة كذكـــري :والتعريب الرياضة فصل امللحمة: في الرئيسية الفصول أحداث جرت تاريخ متثل املرحلة تلك وكانت عشر الثاني القرن وحتي العاشر القرن في إنتصارات العرب وكفاح أبوزيد لتوحيد قبائل جند واليمن حيث وصل حتى إلي أيضا الهاللية السيرة وإمتدت ، وتونس وليبيا ومصر وقلسطني العراق

املغرب وصعيد مصر حتي السودان وأثيوبيا.اما أخري قبائل مع واإلحتاد اجلزيرة عن بالرحيل القبلي التحالف وازداد بالزواج أو باإلستيالء عليها وإخضاعها أو بالتوسع في حشد اجليوش الساعية

للبحث عن األراضي اخلصبة في تونس اخلضراء.

ومع هذا فاحلكاية ليست عدداً من الفتوحات فحسب، إنها حكاية أبوزيد حكايات تضم إنها كما الفقراء. ونصير والتنكر، الدهاء ملك الهاللي وكلها ويونس وعزيزة التونسي خليفة والزناتي عالم العراقي السلطان حكايات تضم عدد ال حصر له من األحداث االسطورية عن احلب والسحر. املعاني وموسيقية كلماتها مما اللغة وعمق ومتتاز تلك احلكايات كلها بقوة يجعلها شديدة التأثير علي السامعني، والداللة التاريخية للسيرة الهاللية ال تنحصر فقط فيما ترويه احلكايــة وإمنا كيف تروى. ويرى شاعر السيرة دائمٍا أن القدر إختاره دون اآلخرين ليتلقى االلهام ويكتب السيرة الهاللية وعادة ما

يتدرب لسنوات طويلة قبل أن يقدمها للناس.ومهارة شاعر السيرة ليست فقط في غنى لغته ومهارتة فى حفظ احداث قاله ملا املستمعني. وطبقا وإمنا في قدرته على جذب السيرة عن ظهر قلب للبحث كاملة عقود ثالثة كرِسّ الذي – األبنودي الرحمن عبد الشاعر القصة كاملة عن السيرة هو شخص يحفظ – شاعر الهاللية السيرة وجمع ظهر قلب وعنده في الوقت نفسه القدره علي االرجتال أثناء روايتها لتتناسب فالبيت األول السيرة من مربعات قنا مثاًل تتكون املستمعني. في مع نوعية الرابع وهكذا، الثاني يتماشي مع بينما الثالث البيت قافيته وموسيقاه مثل مما يخلق إيقاعًا موسيقيًا يبرز عادة بإستخدام نفس الكلمة لربط مقطعني كل منهما له معني مختلف مما يخلق أثر تراكمي إنسيابي وسلس في التركيب االلتزام علي األساس في يعتمد واالرجتال االرجتال. عملية يسهل مما العام بروح الرواية مع إضافة بعض االبتكار واخليال أثناء روايتها، فحتي يقربها من أذهان املستمعني يقوم شاعر السيرة في بعض االحيان، مثاًل، عن طريق اللعب الي االشارة رمبا أو األحداث إلي اجلمهور من شخصيات بضم بالكلمات

17

السيرة الهاللية

من املاضي الى احلاضر

بينما كانت جتلس علي حافة بركة الطير الكائنة بجوار دايرها – ديار بني هالل – أخذت «خضرة» تبحث عن طائر بني الطيور لتتمني أن يولد إبنها مثاال له في هيئته وصفاته، وكانت تعلم جيدا أن تلك األمنية ال رجوع فيها فرمبا حلظتها تكون أبواب السماء مفتوحة، لهذا أخذتها مأخذ اجلد.

فقد كان بصحبتها اليوم، ذلك في ولم تكن «خضرة» جتلس وحدها ثالثون من نسوة ديار بني هالل. كان أول الطيور التي إقتربت طائر أبيض شديد اجلمال حِطّ بالقرب منها في رشاقة وتقدم مختاال بخطوات محسوبة أن منها وطلنب النسوة إبتهجت منها. يشرب وأخذ البركة نحو متجها من يحميني أن أمتني «كيف قائلة رفضت ولكنها الطائر هذا تتمني

أعدائي من كان بهذا احلسن والزهو؟»لوليدها الهاللية قبيلة ه» زوجة سرحان سلطان متنته «شِمّ وملا رفضت

الذي سيرث منصب والده قائد العرب.ثم أتى طائر أحمر اللون، حط علي األرض مندفعا قويا وأخذ يتعارك مع النسوة من البركة حتي متكن من الشرب، وهنا طلبت باقي الطيور قرب خضرة عقد األمنية علي هذا الطائر فأبت مرة أخرى معللة رفضها بأنها ال حتب أن يفرض إبنها نفسه بالقوة علي اآلخرين. وهذه املرة متنته لوليدها

زوجة األمير غامن آملة أن يأتي وليدها في مثل قوته.البركة إلي طيرانه عند األعاجيب يفعل أخذ أخضر، طائر إقترب ثم متهاديا في ثوبه األخضر وإنبهرت النسوه بجماله، وهذه املرة بادرت زوجة قاضي القبيلة وشيخها املفسر للقرآن الشيخ زيان بتمني أن يصير وليدها

في جالل هذا الطائر وهيبته.وأخيراً إقترب طائران أسودا اللون، سمارهما البربري لم مينع إنعكاس الضوء علي رأسيهما، راقبتهما النسوة بإنبهار شديد عندما وصال إلي واآلخر كالسيد يبدو أحدهما وكان البحيرة تابعه، وقد افسحت لهما جميع الطيور املكان. مرة موقعه يسترد أن األحمر الطائر وحاول أخرى إال أن الطائر االسود عاجله بنقرة واحدة

من منقاره كانت كفيلة بإفزاعه وإبعاده.يأتي أن متنت لونه، فرغم خضرة، إختارته الذي الطائر هو هذا كان

وليدها قويا ساحرا ومحاربا نبيال يجمع العرب ويحميهم.وكأن أبواب السماء كانت مفتوحة في تلك اللحظة، حيث بدأت حكاية سالمه أو بركات أو أبوزيد الهاللي كما أطلقت عليه القبائل املختلفة بعد

إنتصاراته العظيمة.إبن غامن بن دياب فكان األخري بالطيور اخلاصة النبؤة أيضا وحتققت العم احلاقد (الطائر األحمر) وحسن إبن السلطان سرحان وزيدان إبن زيان

القاضي العادل.ما أو الهاللية السيرة من خالل طريقها والرؤى االحالم تلك نسجت بعض في القصة أحداث باقي ملتابعة لتهيئنا العرب بسيرة أيضا يعرف أخرى، أحيان في األحداث تلك تطور بشأن توقعاتنا ولتقيس األحيان احلب لقدرة امللموس غير البعد بذلك تذكرنا األحيان كل في ولكنها والسحر واخلوارق علي عمل املعجزات عندما تشير جميع حسابات العقل للتخطيط أهمية تعطي ملحمة إنها كما ذلك، إستحالة علي واملنطق فهؤالء املطلق، واالميان للحدس أهمية تعطي ما بقدر واملكر التكتيكي البشر الذين يؤمنون باهللا ال يرونه ويعتمدون علي السحر في أحيان كثيرة ويعتقدون في قوة حدس نسائهم حتي أنهم يعتمدون عليه في القرارات

الهامة كاحلرب والهجرة إلي جانب تقديراتهم االستراتيجيــة.رمبا كانت تلك بعض مالمح العرب في تلك األزمنة، ولذلك إنطبعت

بها مالمحهم.

بقلم علياء مّسلم

16

السيرة الهاللية

كانت فكرة البطل الذي ال يتمتع بالصفات املتعارف عليها واضحة أيضا في تلك املالحم، سواء في سيرة عنتر بن شداد العبد األسود الذي حتول الي فارس مغوار شديد البأس، أو أبوزيد الهاللي الذي ولد ببشرة داكنة حتي أن تشكك الناس في نسبه وإتهموا أمه في شرفها ونفوها بعيدا هي ووليدها. عنتر من أي علي األمر أول في تنطبق البطل أو القائد مواصفات تكن لم الهاللي إال أن أحداث السيرة اخلاصة بهما كشفت عن جدارتهم أوأبوزيد

بالبطولة األسطورية التي إرتبطت بهما.ورمبا كانت فكرة البطل ذو املواصفات الغير تقليدية نابعة من كونه ينتمي ولكن محتملني. بأبطال مليئة الهاللية السيرة كانت ولهذا للعامة دائما تري ما الذي جعل السيرة الهاللية تختلف وتتميز عن باقي املالحم وكيف إحتفظت بشكلها ومضمونها لعدة قرون متواصلة ؟ سأحاول هنا أن أبحث

في داللتها التاريخية وما تعنيه في احلاضر..

السيــرة كذكـــري :والتعريب الرياضة فصل امللحمة: في الرئيسية الفصول أحداث جرت تاريخ متثل املرحلة تلك وكانت عشر الثاني القرن وحتي العاشر القرن في إنتصارات العرب وكفاح أبوزيد لتوحيد قبائل جند واليمن حيث وصل حتى إلي أيضا الهاللية السيرة وإمتدت ، وتونس وليبيا ومصر وقلسطني العراق

املغرب وصعيد مصر حتي السودان وأثيوبيا.اما أخري قبائل مع واإلحتاد اجلزيرة عن بالرحيل القبلي التحالف وازداد بالزواج أو باإلستيالء عليها وإخضاعها أو بالتوسع في حشد اجليوش الساعية

للبحث عن األراضي اخلصبة في تونس اخلضراء.

ومع هذا فاحلكاية ليست عدداً من الفتوحات فحسب، إنها حكاية أبوزيد حكايات تضم إنها كما الفقراء. ونصير والتنكر، الدهاء ملك الهاللي وكلها ويونس وعزيزة التونسي خليفة والزناتي عالم العراقي السلطان حكايات تضم عدد ال حصر له من األحداث االسطورية عن احلب والسحر. املعاني وموسيقية كلماتها مما اللغة وعمق ومتتاز تلك احلكايات كلها بقوة يجعلها شديدة التأثير علي السامعني، والداللة التاريخية للسيرة الهاللية ال تنحصر فقط فيما ترويه احلكايــة وإمنا كيف تروى. ويرى شاعر السيرة دائمٍا أن القدر إختاره دون اآلخرين ليتلقى االلهام ويكتب السيرة الهاللية وعادة ما

يتدرب لسنوات طويلة قبل أن يقدمها للناس.ومهارة شاعر السيرة ليست فقط في غنى لغته ومهارتة فى حفظ احداث قاله ملا املستمعني. وطبقا وإمنا في قدرته على جذب السيرة عن ظهر قلب للبحث كاملة عقود ثالثة كرِسّ الذي – األبنودي الرحمن عبد الشاعر القصة كاملة عن السيرة هو شخص يحفظ – شاعر الهاللية السيرة وجمع ظهر قلب وعنده في الوقت نفسه القدره علي االرجتال أثناء روايتها لتتناسب فالبيت األول السيرة من مربعات قنا مثاًل تتكون املستمعني. في مع نوعية الرابع وهكذا، الثاني يتماشي مع بينما الثالث البيت قافيته وموسيقاه مثل مما يخلق إيقاعًا موسيقيًا يبرز عادة بإستخدام نفس الكلمة لربط مقطعني كل منهما له معني مختلف مما يخلق أثر تراكمي إنسيابي وسلس في التركيب االلتزام علي األساس في يعتمد واالرجتال االرجتال. عملية يسهل مما العام بروح الرواية مع إضافة بعض االبتكار واخليال أثناء روايتها، فحتي يقربها من أذهان املستمعني يقوم شاعر السيرة في بعض االحيان، مثاًل، عن طريق اللعب الي االشارة رمبا أو األحداث إلي اجلمهور من شخصيات بضم بالكلمات

17

السيرة الهاللية

من املاضي الى احلاضر

بينما كانت جتلس علي حافة بركة الطير الكائنة بجوار دايرها – ديار بني هالل – أخذت «خضرة» تبحث عن طائر بني الطيور لتتمني أن يولد إبنها مثاال له في هيئته وصفاته، وكانت تعلم جيدا أن تلك األمنية ال رجوع فيها فرمبا حلظتها تكون أبواب السماء مفتوحة، لهذا أخذتها مأخذ اجلد.

فقد كان بصحبتها اليوم، ذلك في ولم تكن «خضرة» جتلس وحدها ثالثون من نسوة ديار بني هالل. كان أول الطيور التي إقتربت طائر أبيض شديد اجلمال حِطّ بالقرب منها في رشاقة وتقدم مختاال بخطوات محسوبة أن منها وطلنب النسوة إبتهجت منها. يشرب وأخذ البركة نحو متجها من يحميني أن أمتني «كيف قائلة رفضت ولكنها الطائر هذا تتمني

أعدائي من كان بهذا احلسن والزهو؟»لوليدها الهاللية قبيلة ه» زوجة سرحان سلطان متنته «شِمّ وملا رفضت

الذي سيرث منصب والده قائد العرب.ثم أتى طائر أحمر اللون، حط علي األرض مندفعا قويا وأخذ يتعارك مع النسوة من البركة حتي متكن من الشرب، وهنا طلبت باقي الطيور قرب خضرة عقد األمنية علي هذا الطائر فأبت مرة أخرى معللة رفضها بأنها ال حتب أن يفرض إبنها نفسه بالقوة علي اآلخرين. وهذه املرة متنته لوليدها

زوجة األمير غامن آملة أن يأتي وليدها في مثل قوته.البركة إلي طيرانه عند األعاجيب يفعل أخذ أخضر، طائر إقترب ثم متهاديا في ثوبه األخضر وإنبهرت النسوه بجماله، وهذه املرة بادرت زوجة قاضي القبيلة وشيخها املفسر للقرآن الشيخ زيان بتمني أن يصير وليدها

في جالل هذا الطائر وهيبته.وأخيراً إقترب طائران أسودا اللون، سمارهما البربري لم مينع إنعكاس الضوء علي رأسيهما، راقبتهما النسوة بإنبهار شديد عندما وصال إلي واآلخر كالسيد يبدو أحدهما وكان البحيرة تابعه، وقد افسحت لهما جميع الطيور املكان. مرة موقعه يسترد أن األحمر الطائر وحاول أخرى إال أن الطائر االسود عاجله بنقرة واحدة

من منقاره كانت كفيلة بإفزاعه وإبعاده.يأتي أن متنت لونه، فرغم خضرة، إختارته الذي الطائر هو هذا كان

وليدها قويا ساحرا ومحاربا نبيال يجمع العرب ويحميهم.وكأن أبواب السماء كانت مفتوحة في تلك اللحظة، حيث بدأت حكاية سالمه أو بركات أو أبوزيد الهاللي كما أطلقت عليه القبائل املختلفة بعد

إنتصاراته العظيمة.إبن غامن بن دياب فكان األخري بالطيور اخلاصة النبؤة أيضا وحتققت العم احلاقد (الطائر األحمر) وحسن إبن السلطان سرحان وزيدان إبن زيان

القاضي العادل.ما أو الهاللية السيرة من خالل طريقها والرؤى االحالم تلك نسجت بعض في القصة أحداث باقي ملتابعة لتهيئنا العرب بسيرة أيضا يعرف أخرى، أحيان في األحداث تلك تطور بشأن توقعاتنا ولتقيس األحيان احلب لقدرة امللموس غير البعد بذلك تذكرنا األحيان كل في ولكنها والسحر واخلوارق علي عمل املعجزات عندما تشير جميع حسابات العقل للتخطيط أهمية تعطي ملحمة إنها كما ذلك، إستحالة علي واملنطق فهؤالء املطلق، واالميان للحدس أهمية تعطي ما بقدر واملكر التكتيكي البشر الذين يؤمنون باهللا ال يرونه ويعتمدون علي السحر في أحيان كثيرة ويعتقدون في قوة حدس نسائهم حتي أنهم يعتمدون عليه في القرارات

الهامة كاحلرب والهجرة إلي جانب تقديراتهم االستراتيجيــة.رمبا كانت تلك بعض مالمح العرب في تلك األزمنة، ولذلك إنطبعت

بها مالمحهم.

بقلم علياء مّسلم

16

حاجة الي من يزودهم مبا يحتاجونه ملزاولة أعمالهم مما ساعد في إنتشار عدد كبير من احملال والدكاكني التي تبيع اآلالت املوسيقية ومصممي بدل الرقص الشرقي ولوازمه في الشارع، فإنتشرت عشرات الورش التي تصنع بدل الرقص

الشرقي والتي تفننت في تطويرها وجعلها أكثر بريقا وتألقًا.في القرن التاسع عشر كانت بدل الرقص الشرقي مختلفة متاما وأكثر بساطة، فالغوازي علي وجة اخلصوص كن يلبسن فساتني ملونة طويلة حتتها سراويل الرقص بدلة أما أومطرز، مشغول شال أردافهن حول يربطن وكن حريرية الشرقي احلديثة فمكونة من قطعتني، األولى حريرية مطرزة بالترتر في أغلب األحيان والثانية حتيط مبا حتت اخلصر ومطرزة ايضا ينسدل منها قماش واسع هفهاف.. وكان أول ظهور لهذا الشكل من بدل الرقص الشرقي في ثالثينات

القرن العشرين من خالل صناعة السينما.في املجتمعات احملافظة مثل املجتمع املصري يعتبر الرقص الشرقي أكثر أنواع الفنون إباحية نظرا لكونه لون حسي من الفنون ولكون البعض يربطون باخلطأ بينه وبني البغاء خاصة إذا ما كانت الراقصة تعمل في الكباريهات واملالهي الفن واحلفالت وأسس شركة نقل الليلية.. ويقول هشام الذي إعتزل عالم صغيرة «أن الناس ينظرون الي الفنانني وخصوصًا الراقصات علي إنهم سيئو السلم في وإرتقوا وتزوجوا والثراء الشهرة لقمة وصلوا إذا وحتي السمعه

االجتماعي تظل وصمة الرقص تالحقهم بأعتبارهم تاجروا بأجسادهم».

ويعتقد هشام ان املجتمع املصري منحاز في هذا الشأن حيث يتسامح أكثر مع املشتغلني بالفن من الرجال بإعتبار أنه «أكل عيشهم» بينما يدين الفنانات الشهيرة أم محمد الرأي السمعة، وتختلف معه في الشتغالهم مبهنة سيئة «الناس وتقول عمرها من السبعينات أواخر في معتزلة عاملة وهي بــ«قطة» تدين الراقصة ولكن عندما نرقص الكل يستمتع بفننا – أليس كذلك؟ لقد كان الرقص هو مورد رزقي الوحيد ولوكنت إمرأة سيئة كما يظن الناس لكنت إمتلكت فيال بحمام سباحة في املنصورية من عملي في شارع الهرم بدال من

تسول قوت يومي من جلستي علي الرصيف كما هو حالي اليوم».محمد شارع والراقصات الفنانون هجر اآلن، عامًا عشرين عن يزيد ملا بالشارع املتمسكات املسّنات العوالم من قليلة حفنة يتبق سوى ولم علي

والذكريات..هامن كوشوك أمثال الشرقي الرقص جنوم صعود شهد الذي الشارع إن وصفية االسناوية وحسنه الطويلة وشفيقة أصبح اليوم يشتهر بصناعة اآلثاث

االقتصادى.عندما نسير اليوم حتت بواكي شارع محمد علي التي طاملا إشتهر بها، نرى اعداًد واعداد من محال النجارة واملوبيليا. الشارع الذي كان يحتل تسعني فى املائة منه كل ما يتعلق مبهنة العوالم واملوسيقني واآلالتية، أصبح يحتل تسعني

فى املائة منه اليوم النجارون وورش صناعة االثاث أو بعض الصعاليك.ويقول عم حنفي «ملاذا البكاء علي اللنب املسكوب... إللي راح راح واحلياة البد أن تستمر.. عوالم شارع محمد علي كان لهم أيام مجدهم... وهذه

األيام هي أيام اسطوات النجارة ومعلمني املوبيليا .»

١-اعالن في مجلة من اوائل القرن ال٢٠٣- رقصة الشمعدان الشهيرة

٢و٤- «شارع محمد علي» كارت بوستال ٥-«فتاة راقصة» صورة لديفيد جاردنر-عام ١٩٠٦

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العوالم ورقص الغوازي، وسرعان ما سيطر النوعان علي عالم احلفالت واألفراح والليالي املالح.

وكلمة «عاملة» تعني قبل أي شْي العاملة اخلبيرة بفنون الرقص والغناء والشعر الليالي في احلرملك أو وسط احلرمي واملوسيقى.وكان العوالم يقومون بأحياء قاعة في يجلسون الرجال كان حيث الرجال، أعني عن بعيدا البيوت في ساتر. خلف من إليهم اآلتية العوالم وموسيقي غناء الي يستمعون البيت بني يرقصن الغوازي كانت واالحترام، األعجاب تثير العوالم كانت وبينما ولم يحترمهن واملوالد الشعبية األفراح املقاهي في وأمام الشوارع في العامة

الناس لكونهن يرقصن بني الرجال.البيوت احملترمة أو لم يكن رقص الغوزاي مسموحًا به إطالقًا في حرملك بني عائالت الباكوات والباشوات، إال أنهن كن يشاركن فقط في إحتفاالتهم

الكبري.ذلك ومع العوالم تتقضاه الذي األجر نفس تتقاضي الغوزاي تكن لم فرقًا ن ليكِوّ الرقص عن ويتوقفن كبيرة ثروة يحققن أن بعضهن إستطاعت للرقص والغناء إستعن فيها بغوازي شابــــــات وكانت تلك الفرق تقوم بأحياء الليالي التي يحضرها الرجال في بيوت سمعتها ليست فوق مستوى الشبهات

أو في دهبيات (عوامات).وإنتقل الرقص والغناء فيما بعد من الشوارع واملقاهي إلي املسارح، وحتول نظرا أنه ويقال راقصة/عاهرة. يعني ما الي الوقت مع عاملة كلمة معني للحرج من وجود فرق العوالم والغوازي علي وجه اخلصوص اآلتي كن يقمن بخدمات من نوع خاص للمعجبني من الرجال، أصدر محمد علي باشا فرمان مزاولة من مبنعهم ١٨٣٤ عام في آخر فرمان أعقبه للضرائب بإخضاعهم

عملهم في القاهرة.لهم سمح أن فما ومصاحلهم، العوالم مع العبث الصعب من ولكن (مع ١٨٦٠ عام القاهرة في عملهم ملمارسة بالعودة إسماعيل اخلديوي خضوعهم للضريبة) إجتهوا إلي فتح محال لعملهم ولوازمهم وأنشطتهم في

شارع محمد علي، كرد شديد املكر علي من طردهم وأوقف حالهم.

ويقول عم علي احلالق أحد أقدم سكان شارع محمد علي «لقد كان هذا هو إنتقامهم من محمد علي الكبير.» عم علي شهد كل شْي، من زمن رقصة الشمعدان حتي صعود جنم الفنانة صابرين «لقد كانت تسكن هنا فوق دكان

احلالقة الذي أملكه وكانت فنانة موهوبة وفتاة رقيقة ومهذبة.»كانت رقصة الشمعدان – التي ُيعتقد أنها وفدت أيضا من تركيا – تؤديها الراقصة وهي حتمل علي رأسها شمعدان كبير مضاء الشموع يصنع خصيصا لهذا الغرض. ولكن عم علي ينفي ذلك االعتقاد وتؤكد أم حنان كالمه قائله «كالم فارغ، األتراك ليسو أول من قدم رقصة الشمعدان، إنها الراقصة اللبنانية بديعة مصابني، هي التي قدمت رقصة الشمعدان ألول مرة في الكبارية الذي عاملة هي حنان وأم باشا» إبراهيم ميدان في هنا من بالقرب متلكه كانت معتزلة تدير مدرسة للرقص الشرقي مواجهة لدكان عم علي. تقول أم حنان أيضا أن رقصة الشمعدان إخترعتها في أول األمر زوبة الكلوباتية في شارع (الكلوب) الشمعدان الي نسبة الكلوباتية زوبة وقد سميت علي محمد يشتهرن االتي كن الراقصات إحدى و رأسها، علي به ترقص كانت الذي برقصة الشمعدان كانت تدعي «حياة جنفة» وأختها عنايات، هذا فضال عن

الراقصة املشهورة شفيقة القبطية.في علي محمد شارع في يقيمون الذين واملوسيقيون الراقصات كانت

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حاجة الي من يزودهم مبا يحتاجونه ملزاولة أعمالهم مما ساعد في إنتشار عدد كبير من احملال والدكاكني التي تبيع اآلالت املوسيقية ومصممي بدل الرقص الشرقي ولوازمه في الشارع، فإنتشرت عشرات الورش التي تصنع بدل الرقص

الشرقي والتي تفننت في تطويرها وجعلها أكثر بريقا وتألقًا.في القرن التاسع عشر كانت بدل الرقص الشرقي مختلفة متاما وأكثر بساطة، فالغوازي علي وجة اخلصوص كن يلبسن فساتني ملونة طويلة حتتها سراويل الرقص بدلة أما أومطرز، مشغول شال أردافهن حول يربطن وكن حريرية الشرقي احلديثة فمكونة من قطعتني، األولى حريرية مطرزة بالترتر في أغلب األحيان والثانية حتيط مبا حتت اخلصر ومطرزة ايضا ينسدل منها قماش واسع هفهاف.. وكان أول ظهور لهذا الشكل من بدل الرقص الشرقي في ثالثينات

القرن العشرين من خالل صناعة السينما.في املجتمعات احملافظة مثل املجتمع املصري يعتبر الرقص الشرقي أكثر أنواع الفنون إباحية نظرا لكونه لون حسي من الفنون ولكون البعض يربطون باخلطأ بينه وبني البغاء خاصة إذا ما كانت الراقصة تعمل في الكباريهات واملالهي الفن واحلفالت وأسس شركة نقل الليلية.. ويقول هشام الذي إعتزل عالم صغيرة «أن الناس ينظرون الي الفنانني وخصوصًا الراقصات علي إنهم سيئو السلم في وإرتقوا وتزوجوا والثراء الشهرة لقمة وصلوا إذا وحتي السمعه

االجتماعي تظل وصمة الرقص تالحقهم بأعتبارهم تاجروا بأجسادهم».

ويعتقد هشام ان املجتمع املصري منحاز في هذا الشأن حيث يتسامح أكثر مع املشتغلني بالفن من الرجال بإعتبار أنه «أكل عيشهم» بينما يدين الفنانات الشهيرة أم محمد الرأي السمعة، وتختلف معه في الشتغالهم مبهنة سيئة «الناس وتقول عمرها من السبعينات أواخر في معتزلة عاملة وهي بــ«قطة» تدين الراقصة ولكن عندما نرقص الكل يستمتع بفننا – أليس كذلك؟ لقد كان الرقص هو مورد رزقي الوحيد ولوكنت إمرأة سيئة كما يظن الناس لكنت إمتلكت فيال بحمام سباحة في املنصورية من عملي في شارع الهرم بدال من

تسول قوت يومي من جلستي علي الرصيف كما هو حالي اليوم».محمد شارع والراقصات الفنانون هجر اآلن، عامًا عشرين عن يزيد ملا بالشارع املتمسكات املسّنات العوالم من قليلة حفنة يتبق سوى ولم علي

والذكريات..هامن كوشوك أمثال الشرقي الرقص جنوم صعود شهد الذي الشارع إن وصفية االسناوية وحسنه الطويلة وشفيقة أصبح اليوم يشتهر بصناعة اآلثاث

االقتصادى.عندما نسير اليوم حتت بواكي شارع محمد علي التي طاملا إشتهر بها، نرى اعداًد واعداد من محال النجارة واملوبيليا. الشارع الذي كان يحتل تسعني فى املائة منه كل ما يتعلق مبهنة العوالم واملوسيقني واآلالتية، أصبح يحتل تسعني

فى املائة منه اليوم النجارون وورش صناعة االثاث أو بعض الصعاليك.ويقول عم حنفي «ملاذا البكاء علي اللنب املسكوب... إللي راح راح واحلياة البد أن تستمر.. عوالم شارع محمد علي كان لهم أيام مجدهم... وهذه

األيام هي أيام اسطوات النجارة ومعلمني املوبيليا .»

١-اعالن في مجلة من اوائل القرن ال٢٠٣- رقصة الشمعدان الشهيرة

٢و٤- «شارع محمد علي» كارت بوستال ٥-«فتاة راقصة» صورة لديفيد جاردنر-عام ١٩٠٦

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15

العوالم ورقص الغوازي، وسرعان ما سيطر النوعان علي عالم احلفالت واألفراح والليالي املالح.

وكلمة «عاملة» تعني قبل أي شْي العاملة اخلبيرة بفنون الرقص والغناء والشعر الليالي في احلرملك أو وسط احلرمي واملوسيقى.وكان العوالم يقومون بأحياء قاعة في يجلسون الرجال كان حيث الرجال، أعني عن بعيدا البيوت في ساتر. خلف من إليهم اآلتية العوالم وموسيقي غناء الي يستمعون البيت بني يرقصن الغوازي كانت واالحترام، األعجاب تثير العوالم كانت وبينما ولم يحترمهن واملوالد الشعبية األفراح املقاهي في وأمام الشوارع في العامة

الناس لكونهن يرقصن بني الرجال.البيوت احملترمة أو لم يكن رقص الغوزاي مسموحًا به إطالقًا في حرملك بني عائالت الباكوات والباشوات، إال أنهن كن يشاركن فقط في إحتفاالتهم

الكبري.ذلك ومع العوالم تتقضاه الذي األجر نفس تتقاضي الغوزاي تكن لم فرقًا ن ليكِوّ الرقص عن ويتوقفن كبيرة ثروة يحققن أن بعضهن إستطاعت للرقص والغناء إستعن فيها بغوازي شابــــــات وكانت تلك الفرق تقوم بأحياء الليالي التي يحضرها الرجال في بيوت سمعتها ليست فوق مستوى الشبهات

أو في دهبيات (عوامات).وإنتقل الرقص والغناء فيما بعد من الشوارع واملقاهي إلي املسارح، وحتول نظرا أنه ويقال راقصة/عاهرة. يعني ما الي الوقت مع عاملة كلمة معني للحرج من وجود فرق العوالم والغوازي علي وجه اخلصوص اآلتي كن يقمن بخدمات من نوع خاص للمعجبني من الرجال، أصدر محمد علي باشا فرمان مزاولة من مبنعهم ١٨٣٤ عام في آخر فرمان أعقبه للضرائب بإخضاعهم

عملهم في القاهرة.لهم سمح أن فما ومصاحلهم، العوالم مع العبث الصعب من ولكن (مع ١٨٦٠ عام القاهرة في عملهم ملمارسة بالعودة إسماعيل اخلديوي خضوعهم للضريبة) إجتهوا إلي فتح محال لعملهم ولوازمهم وأنشطتهم في

شارع محمد علي، كرد شديد املكر علي من طردهم وأوقف حالهم.

ويقول عم علي احلالق أحد أقدم سكان شارع محمد علي «لقد كان هذا هو إنتقامهم من محمد علي الكبير.» عم علي شهد كل شْي، من زمن رقصة الشمعدان حتي صعود جنم الفنانة صابرين «لقد كانت تسكن هنا فوق دكان

احلالقة الذي أملكه وكانت فنانة موهوبة وفتاة رقيقة ومهذبة.»كانت رقصة الشمعدان – التي ُيعتقد أنها وفدت أيضا من تركيا – تؤديها الراقصة وهي حتمل علي رأسها شمعدان كبير مضاء الشموع يصنع خصيصا لهذا الغرض. ولكن عم علي ينفي ذلك االعتقاد وتؤكد أم حنان كالمه قائله «كالم فارغ، األتراك ليسو أول من قدم رقصة الشمعدان، إنها الراقصة اللبنانية بديعة مصابني، هي التي قدمت رقصة الشمعدان ألول مرة في الكبارية الذي عاملة هي حنان وأم باشا» إبراهيم ميدان في هنا من بالقرب متلكه كانت معتزلة تدير مدرسة للرقص الشرقي مواجهة لدكان عم علي. تقول أم حنان أيضا أن رقصة الشمعدان إخترعتها في أول األمر زوبة الكلوباتية في شارع (الكلوب) الشمعدان الي نسبة الكلوباتية زوبة وقد سميت علي محمد يشتهرن االتي كن الراقصات إحدى و رأسها، علي به ترقص كانت الذي برقصة الشمعدان كانت تدعي «حياة جنفة» وأختها عنايات، هذا فضال عن

الراقصة املشهورة شفيقة القبطية.في علي محمد شارع في يقيمون الذين واملوسيقيون الراقصات كانت

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في القاهرة، عادة ما يرجع أصل األسماء الغريبة للشوارع واألزقة إلي املعنى املباشر لالسم، فبعضها يشير إلي مهنة أو جتارة معينة مثل النحاسني أو سوق أمير مثل أسطورية تاريخية شخصية إسم يحمل اآلخر والبعض السالح اجليوشي أو سعد زغلول، إال أنه وفي مفارقة مثيــــرة للعجب - يربط الطريق الطويل املمتد من القلعة حتي ميدان العتبة بني شخصية تاريخية عظيمة مثل

محمد علي باشا الكبير وبني مهنة ذات طابع خاص جدا!!والعوالم املوسيقيني حي هو علي محمد شارع كان قريب عهد حتى والفنانني، ويقول حمدي (منتج معتزل) «لدينا جميع لوازم إحياء األفراح والليالي املالح..» ثم يشد نفسًا عميقًا من الشيشة وينفث دخانها كالتنني،

حيث إندفع تياران قويان من الدخان من فتحتي أنفه...العظيم وباني مصر احلديثة مبثل تلك ولكن كيف إرتبط إسم والي مصر

املهنة ؟كانت قاهرة القرن الـ١٩ واحدة من أكبر مدن الشرق األوسط وكانت قبلة باألسوار احملاطة املدينة تلك تعد واملغامرين.لم والرحالة والتجار للدارسني من صناعة األحذية اهللا صانعي بأمر احلاكم فيها منع التي واألبواب العالية

أحذية للنساء حتي يجبرهن علي عدم اخلروج من البيوت.بعده، من وأسرته الكبير علي محمد عهد في كثيرا احلال تغير لقد مما الشاملة والنهضة والتطوير بالتجديد يتسم عصرا القاهرة شهدت فقد جعلها مكانا رائعا القامة كل من يتطلع حلياة ثرية باالحداث واالمكانيات القرن ال ١٩ قائال والنشاطات.. وقد كتب اجلبرتي في وصف قاهرة أوائل البهجة عيون من قاطنوها ينهل احلوريات، تسكنها وجنة الغزالن «بالد

واملسرات».كانت ثالثة قرون من احلكم العثماني (١٥١٧ – ١٨٠٥) كفيلة بتحويل القاهرة الي عاصمة ريفية خاملة، راكدة الثقافة، غير أن الوافدين من األتراك والشراكسة من الصفوة احلاكمة ورجال اجليش إستطاعوا مع هذا أن يحدثوا تغييرا ما في شكل احلياة في املدينة. فقد كانوا من الباكوات والتجار شديدي الثراء، بني بعضهم بيوتا فخمة وقصورا تطل علي بحيرة األزبكية بينما بنيى آخرون جتمعات سكنية عظيمة قريبا من القلعة وكانت حياتهم خلف أسوار بشتى ومليئة والرفاهية البذخ مظاهر بكل حافلة مترفة حياة القصور تلك

ألوان املتع والعربدة.وسرعان ما أصبحت املدينة زاخرة بالفنانني واملوسيقني والشعراء واألدباء، يستمتع زائروها بأرفع الفنون وأرقي املواهب في منطقة الشرق األوسط قاطبة.

إلى وفدت التي الصناعات هوأحد والطرب بالرقص النساء إشتغال كان القاهرة من إسطنبول عاصمة األمبراطورية العثمانية. وعلي الرغم من أن فكرة الرقص كانت معروفة في مصر منذ عصر الفراعنة وهناك العديد من الرسوم اجلدارية علي املقابر واملعابد تصور راقصات وعازفات في مصر القدمية منذ القرن الرابع عشر قبل امليالد، إال أن نوع الرقص الوافد كان مختلفًا، لم يكن هو ذلك الرقص الفرعوني الديني الطابع الذي كان يؤدى في املعابد وكانت حركات اجلسد فيه تتسم بالكالسيكية واخلشوع. لقد حتول الرقص الي مهنة

مبتذلة ومستهجنة.نوعني: رقص إلي في مصر األتراك بالد من الوافد الشرقي الرقص إنقسم

١- «بنات راقصات بالقاهرة» لوحة للرسام دايفيد روبرتس - عام ١٨٤٦٢،٣،٤ - مجموعة من الكارت بوستال من اواخر القرن التاسع عشر

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موضوع الغالف

بقلم إيفا دادريان

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في القاهرة، عادة ما يرجع أصل األسماء الغريبة للشوارع واألزقة إلي املعنى املباشر لالسم، فبعضها يشير إلي مهنة أو جتارة معينة مثل النحاسني أو سوق أمير مثل أسطورية تاريخية شخصية إسم يحمل اآلخر والبعض السالح اجليوشي أو سعد زغلول، إال أنه وفي مفارقة مثيــــرة للعجب - يربط الطريق الطويل املمتد من القلعة حتي ميدان العتبة بني شخصية تاريخية عظيمة مثل

محمد علي باشا الكبير وبني مهنة ذات طابع خاص جدا!!والعوالم املوسيقيني حي هو علي محمد شارع كان قريب عهد حتى والفنانني، ويقول حمدي (منتج معتزل) «لدينا جميع لوازم إحياء األفراح والليالي املالح..» ثم يشد نفسًا عميقًا من الشيشة وينفث دخانها كالتنني،

حيث إندفع تياران قويان من الدخان من فتحتي أنفه...العظيم وباني مصر احلديثة مبثل تلك ولكن كيف إرتبط إسم والي مصر

املهنة ؟كانت قاهرة القرن الـ١٩ واحدة من أكبر مدن الشرق األوسط وكانت قبلة باألسوار احملاطة املدينة تلك تعد واملغامرين.لم والرحالة والتجار للدارسني من صناعة األحذية اهللا صانعي بأمر احلاكم فيها منع التي واألبواب العالية

أحذية للنساء حتي يجبرهن علي عدم اخلروج من البيوت.بعده، من وأسرته الكبير علي محمد عهد في كثيرا احلال تغير لقد مما الشاملة والنهضة والتطوير بالتجديد يتسم عصرا القاهرة شهدت فقد جعلها مكانا رائعا القامة كل من يتطلع حلياة ثرية باالحداث واالمكانيات القرن ال ١٩ قائال والنشاطات.. وقد كتب اجلبرتي في وصف قاهرة أوائل البهجة عيون من قاطنوها ينهل احلوريات، تسكنها وجنة الغزالن «بالد

واملسرات».كانت ثالثة قرون من احلكم العثماني (١٥١٧ – ١٨٠٥) كفيلة بتحويل القاهرة الي عاصمة ريفية خاملة، راكدة الثقافة، غير أن الوافدين من األتراك والشراكسة من الصفوة احلاكمة ورجال اجليش إستطاعوا مع هذا أن يحدثوا تغييرا ما في شكل احلياة في املدينة. فقد كانوا من الباكوات والتجار شديدي الثراء، بني بعضهم بيوتا فخمة وقصورا تطل علي بحيرة األزبكية بينما بنيى آخرون جتمعات سكنية عظيمة قريبا من القلعة وكانت حياتهم خلف أسوار بشتى ومليئة والرفاهية البذخ مظاهر بكل حافلة مترفة حياة القصور تلك

ألوان املتع والعربدة.وسرعان ما أصبحت املدينة زاخرة بالفنانني واملوسيقني والشعراء واألدباء، يستمتع زائروها بأرفع الفنون وأرقي املواهب في منطقة الشرق األوسط قاطبة.

إلى وفدت التي الصناعات هوأحد والطرب بالرقص النساء إشتغال كان القاهرة من إسطنبول عاصمة األمبراطورية العثمانية. وعلي الرغم من أن فكرة الرقص كانت معروفة في مصر منذ عصر الفراعنة وهناك العديد من الرسوم اجلدارية علي املقابر واملعابد تصور راقصات وعازفات في مصر القدمية منذ القرن الرابع عشر قبل امليالد، إال أن نوع الرقص الوافد كان مختلفًا، لم يكن هو ذلك الرقص الفرعوني الديني الطابع الذي كان يؤدى في املعابد وكانت حركات اجلسد فيه تتسم بالكالسيكية واخلشوع. لقد حتول الرقص الي مهنة

مبتذلة ومستهجنة.نوعني: رقص إلي في مصر األتراك بالد من الوافد الشرقي الرقص إنقسم

١- «بنات راقصات بالقاهرة» لوحة للرسام دايفيد روبرتس - عام ١٨٤٦٢،٣،٤ - مجموعة من الكارت بوستال من اواخر القرن التاسع عشر

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موضوع الغالف

بقلم إيفا دادريان

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11

شبرا فى ٢٣ سبتمبر ١٨٨٨ وقد احتفل بافتتاحها رسميًا فى ٨ أكتوبر ١٨٨٨ وبدأت الدراسة بها فى ٧ ديسمبر من نفس العام.

أزالت وزارة املعارف اإلسطبالت وردمت الساقية وغطت الصهريج، لتقيم فصوًال فى اجلهتني البحرية والقبلية من احلديقة وإن بقى مبنى القصر نفسه الورشة زى وارتدى السهرة بدلة خلع قد النزهة وكأن حاله، على قائمًا استعداداً لعمل شاق! بدأت املدرسة بتسعة وعشرين طالبًا حتت اسم مدرسة املعلمني واستمرت تعرف به حتى زارها السلطان حسني كامل سنة ١٩١٦ فأمر بأن يطلق عليها اسم أخيه الذى أقامها فعرفت حتى يومنا هذا مبدرسة التوفيقية وكان أول ناظر لها موجيل بك، أما أول ناظر مصرى فكان األستاذ

محمد احلسينى سنة ١٩٢٥.

حفالت ويشهد زوارها كبار يستضيف كقصر النزهة مجد ذهب رمبا أثمن كان فى مقدوره وقد أضحى أعمق ودوراً بيد أن مجداً ووالئم لهم، التوفيقية خريجى قائمة تطالع شأنًا. وأعالها مصر مدارس أبرز من واحداً فى نصف القرن العشرين األول فتجدها ضمت كثيراً من أبرز رجال مصر فى مختلف املجاالت وأعالهم شأنًا نذكر منهم على سبيل املثال فقط عبد اخلالق ثروت باشا ومحمد محمود باشا وعبد الفتاح يحيى باشا من رؤساء احلكومة وويصا واصف بك وعبد السالم فهمى جمعة باشا من رؤساء مجلس النواب عيسى وحلمى باشا صدقى وكامل باشا حسن وحافظ باشا حنا ومرقص باشا وتوفيق دوس باشا وصليب سامى باشا وحافظ عفيفى باشا من الوزراء املعروف احملارب باشا املصرى العاصمة وعزيز باشا محافظ ومحمود صدقى

وجنيب محفوظ باشا الطبيب املشهور وغيرهم عشرات وعشرات.

٨٩ و٩٨!

مدرسة، إلى حتوله تاريخ حتقيق نى وحيَرّ النزهة بناء تاريخ حتقيق نى حيَرّولكن ألنه جاء لصعوبة حتقيقه يطير صوابى! ال أن كاد تاريخ هدمه لكن زمن أن القاهرة بأمر - واملهمومني – املهتمني أغلب فيه اعتقد وقت فى انقضى، قد والتشفى اجلهل مبعاول العريقة والقصور اجلميلة املبانى هدم واستبشروا خيراً وقد سمعوا بخطة لترميم ما بقى منها وإحياء مجده، على أن قراراً غريبًا اتخذ بهدمه فى ١٩٨٩ فجاء هدمًا آلمال اإلصالح وانهياراً لرؤى االزدهار. وبدأ الهدم فعًال فى أول سبتمبر سنة ١٩٩٠ ثم هدمت باقى املبانى القدمية امللحقة به سنة ١٩٩٥ بصراحة، ال أعرف سببًا لهذا القرار املتخلف

وال أقبل أى مبرر له!

قلنا أن النزهة كان يطلق عليه اسم املسافرخانة، وهو غير قصر املسافرخانة

الذى كان فى حى قصر الشوق. تنبئك كتب التاريخ السياسى أن األخير كان محل ميالد اخلديو إسماعيل. أما كتب التاريخ املعمارى، فتنبئك أننا فقدنا

االثنني فى أواخر القرن العشرين، واحد سنة ١٩٨٩ والثانى سنة ١٩٩٨.

املسافرخانة ذاك؛ حرقناه بإهمالنا، واملسافرخانة هذا؛ ذبحناه بجهلنا... أيا قاهرة، متى يترفق بك أبناؤك!!**

أمني سامى باشا: تقومي النيل م٣ ج٣ ص١١٤٩، وقد ورد التاريخ بالتقومي الهجرى فى ٦ ربيع األول ١٢٩١ هـ واستعنا بكتاب التوفيقات اإللهامية ص×

لتحويله إلى التقومي امليالدى.

مراجع البحث

أحمد شفيق باشا: مذكراتى فى نصف قرن ج١.أمني سامى باشا: تقومي النيل م٣ ج١-٣.

إلياس األيوبى: تاريخ مصر فى عهد اخلديو إسماعيل باشا ج١.بيير كرابيتس: إسماعيل املفترى عليه.جورجى زيدان: تاريخ مصر احلديث.

عبد احلميد نافع بك: ذيل خطط املقريزى.عبد الرحمن الرافعى: ثورة ١٩١٩

عبد الرحمن زكى بك: القاهرةيونان لبيب رزق، الدكتور: ديوان احلياة املعاصرة ج١

تاريخ شبرا – مجلة تذكاريةمجلة مدرسة شبرا الثانوية، العدد السنوى (١٩٥٠-١٩٥١)

ديوان جاللة امللك: األسرة احملمدية العلوية اجلليلةالكتاب التذكارى لرابطة خريجى التوفيقية

.Elisabeth B, la Contesse : Souvenirs d'un Voyage en EgypteG. Balboni: Gl'Italiani nella civilta del Secolo 19 smo

de Pasquale 1862-Giulio Cervani: Voyage en Egypte 1861.Rivoltella

G. Delchevalerie: Flore exotique Rudolph, HIH �e Crown Prince: Travels in the East,

including a visit to Egypt and the Holy Land.Stacquez, Docteur:L'Egypte, la Basse-Nubie

Letters of Lord and Lady Wolseley.Egyptian Gazette March –October 1882

.Rapport �nal de la Commission de l'Université

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10

مجلة إجيبشيان جازيت أن الدوق أقام فى القصر وبصحبته أيضًا دوق أوف تيك Duke of Teck أحد أقربائه مع كامل حاشيتهما، مما يشير إلى أن

ما ذكر عن صغر حجمه هو أمر نسبى محض!

Lord Du�erin دفرين لورد جاء البريطان. وجاء العثمانيون ذهب سفير إجنلترا فى اآلستانة فى نوفمبر ١٨٨٣ موفداً من حكومته ليدرس حال مصر ويقدم عنه تقريراً. وكسابقيه ينزل فى ثغر اإلسكندرية فيتوجه إلى رأس التني لالستراحة والغذاء ثم يستقل القطار إلى القاهرة. هذه املرة استقبله ذو اخلديو لزيارة توجه النزهة. غداة وصوله إلى قصرنا، باشا واصطحبه الفقار توفيق فى قصر اجلزيرة فى موكب ضخم حتف به كوكبة من فرسان اإلجنليز وقد أطلقت املدافع من القلعة حلظة خروجه من النزهة وعند عودته إليه، وكل هذه املراسم طبعًا مبثابة إشارات قوية سافرة إلى أن اإلجنليز قد صاروا أهل احلل

والعقد فى أرض الكنانة.

وفى مساء نفس اليوم رد له اخلديو الزيارة حسب قواعد البرتوكول، دائمًا ما يحيرنى هذا األمر؛ انتهى احلديث بني االثنني وانقضت املقابلة، وبعد ساعة لهما مبواضيع أخرى أين ففيما يكون احلديث ومن زيارة جديدة، يبدءان

يبحثانها!

الثالثة ثابتة!امتد بل والغرب، الشرق من السياسة رجال باستضافة النزهة يكتف لم كرمه ألعضاء األسرة العلوية نفسها؛ حني عاد األمير حسني كامل إلى مصر بعد أن غادرها مع أبيه، استضافه أخوه فى قصر النزهة مع أسرته فترة فى أبريل ١٨٨٤. واألغلب أن ذلك كان حني اشتد اخلالف مع زوجته األولى األميرة عني احلياة أحمد التى كان يقيم معها فى ذلك الوقت فى قصره باجليزة، إذ نعرف من املراجع أنه طلقها سنة ١٨٨٥. وسترى أن حسني كامل أطلق اسم أخيه على املدرسة التى قامت فى القصر حني زارها سنة ١٩١٦، أى أنه رد

اللفتة الكرمية ألخيه بعد اثنني وثالثني عامًا!

النزهة سيكون النظار إلى مستر أجنرتون أن قصر وتقرأ خطابًا من مجلس حتت أمره لكى ينزل فيه فى أغسطس ١٨٨٤، ولم أهتد فيما قرأت لوظيفة هذا املستر وال مّلته! ويبدو أن النزهة كان فى هذه الفترة فعًال ال يهدأ، فما General Wolseley ولسلى جنرال حل حتى هذا أجنرتون رحل أن ضيفًا على القصر فى سبتمبر من نفس السنة حني مر على مصر فى طريقه

إلى اخلرطوم.

إيطاليا النزهة فى األوراق فكان ولى عهد أما آخر من وجدته ضيفًا على Victor Emmanuel III ثم ملكها فيما بعد فيكتور إميانيول الثالثالذى اشترت احلكومة موبيليات خاصة للنزهة استعداداً الستقباله فى مارس ١٨٨٧. الغريب أن فيكتور إميانيول عاد لزيارة مصر مرة أخرى فى الثالثينيات وهو على عرش بالده ثم جاءها مرة ثالثة وأخيرة منفيًا بعد خلعه سنة ١٩٤٨،

الثالثة ثابتة!

ردم ساقية وإنشاء أجيال!على أن تقلب األزمان من سنن احلياة، وقد بدأ مجد النزهة يشحب وتذبل سيرته فى منتصف ثمانينيات القرن التاسع عشر. ورغم أن الكثير من املراجع تؤكد حتوله إلى مدرسة سنة ١٨٨٦، إال أن الوثيقة التى تفيد استضافته ألمير ذلك حتى للضيافة قصراً يزال ال كان بأنه تقطع مارس ١٨٨٧ فى إيطاليا التاريخ، وقد الحظنا فى غيرها من الورق املصفر من فعل الزمن الزاخر بأسراره أن مصاريف ترميمات قصر النزهة من ١٨ أكتوبر ١٨٨٢ إلى ٩ يناير ١٨٨٧ كانت تخصم على نظارة األشغال العمومية، بينما جتد وثيقة أخرى مؤرخة من تخصم النزهة قصر ترميم مصاريف أن إلى تشير ١٨٨٨ سبتمبر ١٠

ميزانية نظارة املعارف؛ مما يشير إلى صيرورتها مدرسة آنذاك.

النزهة أن حتول املالية ناظر إلى املعارف ناظر من مكاتبة تكشف كذلك إلى مدرسة جاء فى ١٨٨٨ إذ أرسل خطابًا بشأن انتقال مدرسة املعلمني التى تأسست فى سبتمبر ١٨٨٠ فى درب اجلنينة باألزبكية إلى قصر النزهة بسكة ٢

١

١-األرشدوق رودولف، ولى عهد النمسا الذى مكث بقصر النزهة فى عام ١٨٨١، نفس الوقت الذى كانت عشيقتة مارى فيتسيرا (التى وجدت مقتولة معة فى عام

١٨٨٩) تعيش مبصر مع عائلتها٢- لورد دافرين الذى اوفد الى مصر فى عام ١٨٨٢

٣- األمير ارثر، ابن امللكة فيكتوريا، الذى زار القصر فى عام ١٨٨٢٤- امللك هنرى اخلامس، ملك فرنسا الذى زار القصر فى عام ١٨٦١

9

لم يهنأ اخلديو توفيق ورجاله املخلصني بنوم أو راحة منذ وصول برقية الباب العالى التاريخية بخلع إسماعيل وتوليه هو مسند اخلديوية، بل مضت أيامهم فى قلق بالغ وتوتر أخذت حدته فى ازدياد؛ فقد كانت املراسم تقضى بوصول مندوب عن السلطان حامًال فرمان التولية. ومتضى أيام وأسابيع صيف قاهرة الفرمان. أخذ سنة ١٨٧٩ طويلة حارة، يزيدها بطئًا وسخونة تأخر وصول من كل تنمو معيته رجال ومخاوف يوم كل مع يزداد اجلديد اخلديو قلق انتزعها التى االمتيازات أن يسحب يريد السلطان أن مفادها تنتشر إشاعة منه إسماعيل باشا ملصر والتى كانت تكفل لها استقالًال عمليًا عن اآلستانة. السلطان طلب رفضت التى األوروبية والدول السلطان بني اجلدل واستمر التى القروض وحرية التجارية االتفاقات عدا فيما لضغوطها رضخ حتى سحبت من اخلديو بعد أن أفرط أبوه فى استخدامها حتى جلبت على البالد

كارثة مالية أودت بعرشه.

أخيراً وردت برقية يوم ٤ أغسطس ١٨٧٩ بقرب وصول على فؤاد بك أحد رجال املابني (املعية السلطانية)، وبالفعل وصل فؤاد بك يوم ١١ أغسطس إلى اإلسكندرية حيث استقبله شريف باشا رئيس مجلس النظار واصطحبه إلى القاهرة وسار من احملطة إلى قصر النزهة حيث أقام، فى الوقت الذى أطلقت

املدافع حتية لقدومه أو باألحرى قدوم الفرمان!

وفى صباح ١٤ أغسطس ١٨٧٩ سار موكب الفرمان من النزهة إلى القلعة حيث كان اخلديو اجلديد قد سبقه إليها فتلى الفرمان وأقيمت الزينات إحتفاًال تقدم املقام واستقرار االنتظام «بعد أنه األهرام جريدة لنا وتروى باملناسبة. عطوفتلو على بك وقدم الفرمان السامى لسمو اخلديو املعظم فقبله باإلجالل الفراغ تال حضرة شيخ ودفعه إلى سعادتلو طلعت باشا فتاله باإلكرام وبعد جامع القلعة خطابًا ضمنه الدعاء بحفظ احلضرة السلطانية واجلناب اخلديوى األعالم العلماء من التشريفات وجرت ومرة مرة مائة املدافع أطلقت ثم يتقدمهم حضرات املوالى الكرام شيخ اإلسالم والسيد البكرى وكبار العلماء

واملشايخ واملوظفني والذوات والقناصل ورؤساء امللل».

عز الدين يصل!ويتوالى زوار مصر املهمني - نزالء النزهة - فى الوصول إليها، فبعد مظاهرة اجليش بقيادة عرابى باشا فى ٩ سبتمبر ١٨٨١ تصور اخلديو أن قبول اإلنذار وتعيني شريف باشا رئيسًا للنظار قد جعل املوقف يهدأ وتسكن أنوائه، لكن السلطان كان يرقب املوقف بعني صقر، وقد شجعه إعالن عرابى باشا املتكرر عن والئه له فى أن يبادر باستغالل الظروف املاثلة أمامه الستعادة نفوذه على مصر. و فى ٣ أكتوبر ١٨٨١ فوجئ اخلديو ببرقية من السراى الهمايونية تنبئه بقرب وصول وفد من السلطان لتقصى احلقائق فى مصر، فى إشارة سافرة حلق لسطوتها. يخضع بلد أحوال فى يفتشون مندوبني إيفاد فى العلية الدولة يوم الشاهانى الوفد وصل اآلستانة بواخر إحدى الدين» «عز ظهر وعلى التني رأس سراى فى قصيرة استراحة وبعد باشا، درويش برئاسة أكتوبر ٦إلى القاهرة حيث كان فى استقبالهم رئيس الديوان اخلديوى استقلوا قطاراً فاصطحبهم إلى قصر النزهة بعد أن أمر اخلديو بإعداده إلقامتهم. وفى اليوم التالى زار الوفد اخلديو فى سراى اإلسماعيلية مقر إقامته وبعد قليل انصرف

الوفد عائداً إلى النزهة حيث رد لهم اخلديو الزيارة فى اليوم نفسه.

Archduke رودولف أرشيدوق مصر إلى يأتى ١٨٨١ فبراير وفى Rudolphe ولى عهد النمسا فيقيم له اخلديو حفًال رائعًا فى النزهة محل القاهرة قصور درة بدا حتى أضواؤه وتآلآلت القصر فيها تألق استضافته، وفخرها. أقام هذا األمير فى القاهرة حوالى شهرين وغالبًا ما يكون قد التقى مندوب والدها كان التى Mary Vetsera فيتسيرا مبارى زيارته أثناء النمسا فى صندوق الدين. وبعد قصة رومانسية استمرت بضع سنوات وجد االثنان منتحرين -أو مقتولني- فى قصره فى مايرلنج Mayerling بالنمسا فى ظروف ببالغة اإلثارة والغموض جعلت قصتهما موضوعًا حلوالى عشرين

فيلم ومسلسل!

كثرة السالم!

يجرب أن فأراد مدرسة إلى سيتحول أنه يعرف كان النزهة أن ويبدو ولدا توفيق ومحمد حلمى عباس األميران أخذ ١٨٨٢ فبراير ففى نفسه، اخلديو توفيق يتلقيان دروسهما فى القصر لعدة أشهر عاد بعدها النزهة قصراً

للضيافة، ولكن إلى حني.

وتتوالى األحداث املثيرة والقوى اإلمبريالية تتربص مبصر وترمقها بعني غدر وطمع، حتى وقعت الواقعة! احتل اجليش اإلجنليزى مصر ويعود اخلديو توفيق إلى العاصمة يوم ٢٥ سبتمبر ١٨٨٢ فيدخلها حتت حماية جيش االحتالل General وقد بالغ فى احلفاوة بهم حتى أنه أمر باستضافة جنرال ولسلى Duke قائد اجليش فى قصر عابدين، أما دوق أوف كنوت Wolseleyof Connaught جنل امللكة فيكتوريا فقد خصص له قصر النزهة. ورمبا فى نقرأ أننا بيد العالى، والقصر بعابدين باملقارنة صغيرا قصراً النزهة كان

١-السلطان عبد العزيز الذى زار القصر فى عام ١٨٦٣٢- افيتوريو اميانيولى الثانى، ملك ايطاليا الذى زار القصر فى عام ١٨٨٧

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8

مسافرخانة غير املسافرخانة!

اعتالئه من بعد شهر كان باشا إسماعيل فى عهد بالقصر نلتقى ما أول العرش، فقد أصدر إرادة إلى مصطفى باشا الكريدلى محافظ مصر بإهداء قصر النزهة األميرى إلى طوسون باشا بن سعيد باشا حيث ال يوجد له محل إقامة فى مصر ١٩ فبراير ١٨٦٣. ونخلص من هذا أن سعيد باشا بنى النزهة كقصر حكومى مخصص الستخدام الوالى، ومن ثم ذهب بعده إلى حوزة من خلفه

ولم يرثه ابنه كسائر أمالكه اخلاصة.

على أن أول ما يجذب النظر إلى هذا القصر كان ما كتب عنه مبناسبة زيارة لم ميكث ١٨٦٣؛ أبريل ١٢ األحد يوم له التاريخية العزيز عبد السلطان العزيز بجمال أبهر عبد النزهة رغم صغر حجمه السلطان به طويًال، ولكن الرسامني الذين كانوا مبعيته أن معماره وحسن زخرفته، حتى أنه أمر بعض

يأخذوا رسمه ليبنى مثله على ضفاف البوسفور!

كل من له أدنى إملام بالتاريخ يعرف عن احلفلة األسطورية التى أقامها اخلديو إسماعيل فى نوفمبر ١٨٦٩ مبناسبة افتتاح قناة السويس، ويعرف كيف سارع اخلديو ببناء قصر اجلزيرة ليستضيف فيه اإلمبراطورة أوجينى وقد نسج العامة مع ولنبقى اجلزيرة وخياالته من دعنا األقاصيص، وراء خيال من هذه خيال النزهة، فقد لعب أيضًا دوراً فى االستضافة أثناء االحتفاالت حيث نزل به دوق إيطاليا وزوجته ملك بن Duke Amedeo d'Aosta أوستا دو آميديو الدوقة وبعد مغادرتهما النزهة حل به فى نفس الشهر ولى عهد هولندا. فى تلك السنة بدأ اخلديو فى إنشاء أول حديقة للحيوان فى مصر فى القصر العالى ثم نقلها إلى قصر النزهة لبعض الوقت، أو األغلب أنه نقلها إلى األراضى املتاخمة

له والتى بيعت فى أواخر عهد اخلديو إسماعيل وقسمت أراضيها.

هكذا حتول النزهة إلى قصر ضيافة أطلق عليه وقتها اسم املسافرخانة، وهو غير قصر املسافرخانة الذى ولد به اخلديو إسماعيل واحترق سنة ١٩٩٨، بعد أن أتت عليه النيران التى أشعلها األهالى للتخلص من القمامة امللقاة بجانبه!

بني كتخدا وشريف!نعود إلى احلديث عن ملكية القصر؛ وقد ذكر إلياس األيوبى – أحد أهم السلطان، زاره للخديو وقت أنه كان ملك باشا - مؤرخى عصر إسماعيل القصر طويًال فى التى ذكرناها. على أى حال لم ميكث اإلرادة ير لم ورمبا ملك طوسون باشا، فقد استعاده منه اخلديو بأن بادله مع قصر أحمد طاهر

باشا الذى يقع أيضًا فى شبرا بعد فترة وجيزة من اعتالئه العرش.

للبناء حبه عن تعبيراً األحجار» أعشق «أنا يقول كان إسماعيل اخلديو والتشييد، وقد كان للنزهة فى هذا احلب نصيبًا، ففى سنة ١٨٦٩ أمر اخلديو القصر حديقة فى مبانى ستة Avoscaniببناء آفوسكانى إسماعيل الستخدامات مختلفة. ونقرأ فى وثيقة تعود إلى ٢٣ أبريل ١٨٧٤ كشف مببلغ ٢٠٩٣ كيسة أنفقه اخلديو إسماعيل على سراى دولتلو طوسون باشا لتطويرها، واألغلب أن املقصود قصر النزهة الذى رمبا كان ال يزال يعرف باسم

مالكه األول.

تأنق وطفق يؤدى أناقة مع قدوم كل ضيف؛ ويزداد النزهة يتجمل سدر دوره ويتأهب ألداء دوره اجلديد؛ فأمامى كشف حساب مببلغ ٢١٨٤ كيسًا بتاريخ ١٥ مارس ١٨٧٥ أنفقت استعداداً الستقبال يوسف كامل باشا الصدر «الترميمات قيمة الكبير، باشا بنت محمد على األعظم وزوج زينب هامن

والتعظيمات» التى أجريت بالقصر.

Sir جاء كامل باشا من الشرق ثم وفد سير كيف من الغرب. ستيفني كيفStephen Caveهبط مصر فى ديسمبر ١٨٧٥ على رأس جلنته املشهورة ليتفقد أحوالها املالية عقب موافقة اخلديو على بيع أسهم القناة إلجنلترا. وفى قصر النزهة حيث أقام سير كيف عدة أسابيع، كتب تقريره الشهير عن تدهور

أحوال مصر املالية وقرب إفالسها.

املثير فى أمر قصر النزهة أن بعض املراجع تخبرنا أن إسماعيل باشا نفسه كان يذهب إليه أحيانًا للراحة رغم كثرة ما بنى وطّور من قصور، األمر الذى يقطع بتميز معمار القصر املنمنم وروعة موقعه اخلالب. فى نفس الوقت يتوالى ذكر ضيوف مصر الذين استضافهم النزهة فى عهد اخلديو إسماعيل، من إبراهيم Ulysse Grant باشا كتخدا اآلستانة فى سنة ١٨٧٦ إلى جنرال جرانتسنة ١٨٧٧، الذى نزل فى النزهة لكن اخلديو أقام له حفًال رائعًا فى عابدين ثم األمير عبد اهللا شريف مكة سنة ١٨٧٨، قبل عام تقريبًا من انقضاء عهد

أول خديو ملصر.

موكب الفرمان!

وفى عهد اخلديو توفيق تألق النزهة وزاد بريقه وقد أمسى شاهداً فى قلب أهم أحداثه وأكثرها إثارة. فى مقال قصر اإلسماعيلية استعرضنا مالبسات خلع األب وإحالل ابنه فى مقامه وقد شهدها ذلك القصر، وتأتى شهادة قصر

النزهة لتتم أحداث هذا الفصل اخلطير فى تاريخنا املعاصر.النزهة لتتم أحداث هذا الفصل اخلطير فى تاريخنا املعاصر.١

النزهة لتتم أحداث هذا الفصل اخلطير فى تاريخنا املعاصر.٢

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7

يزكى ما الوثائق وفى بناه، الذى هو باشا أن سعيد يرى فريق ولد. كيف إلى ١٨٦١ ديسمبر ٢٠ فى صادر جواب جتد مثًال ذلك من الرأى. هذا «عموم جبخانات احملروسة» (أى مخازن الذخيرة بالقاهرة) بشأن ثمن قناطير فى ١٦ آخر صادر وجواب النزهة، قصر بناء لزوم األحجار لقطع البارود املأخوذين من األربعة خيول اسطبل شبني بخصوص ثمن إلى يناير ١٨٦١ مواشى االسطبل لزوم زراعة قصر النزهة. وتلمس من بعض ما ورد فى الوثائق احملفوظة أن اخلواجة بياتولى واخلواجة إستولّى كانا ضمن املقاولني الذين عهد إليهم بتشييد القصر، كذلك جتد خطابًا صادراً إلى مأمور أشغال قصر النيل بشأن أجرة بناء قصر النزهة فى ٢٤ يناير ١٨٥٩، وكل ذلك كاد أن يقنعنى

أن سعيد باشا بنى النزهة.

على أن عبد احلميد بك نافع، وهو معاصر لسعيد باشا، كتب أنه اشتراه بورت ال دو هنرى بسفيك إليه. وأضاف وسعه ثم بورت ُدال مسيو من يتقن كان (١٨١٥-١٨٧٧) Paci�que Henri Delaporteالعربية، وقد جاء إلى مصر سنة ١٨٤٨ قنصًال لفرنسا فى مصر واستمر بها

حتى سنة ١٨٦١ حني غادرها إلى بغداد قنصًال لبالده هناك.

اشترى سعيد باشا إذن النزهة وأضاف إليه جناحني كل منهما ثالثة أدوار قبة وتعلوه أعمدة على يقف القصر مدخل به صغير مربع مبنى يصلهما بيضاوية، وقد أثثه بأفخر الرياش فجاء مزيجًا أنيقًا من الطرز الغربية والشرقية.

اقًا لتمضية الوقت فيه وأول ذكر وجدته سعيد باشا كان مغرمًا بالنزهة تَوّالستقبال رسمى أجرى فى القصر كان فى نوفمبر ١٨٦١ لكونت دو شومبور Comte de Chambord الذى أصبح هنرى اخلامس ملك فرنسا فيما بعد، فقد وصل إلى القاهرة فى ١٢ نوفمبر ١٨٦١ واستقبله الوالى فى قصر فى الوالى ففى ديسمبر ١٨٦٢ يستقبل الدوق، الكونت جاء بعد النزهة. النزهة دوق أوف برابون Duke of Brabantولى عهد بلجيكا الذى صار

فيما بعد امللك ليوبولد الثانى.

الدوق لم يقطن النزهة، إذ سرعان ما غادر القاهرة فى رحلة نيلية على يخت الوالى اخلاص ملشاهدة آثار الصعيد، أما الكونت فقد أقام به ويروى دكتور ستاكوى Stacquez الذى رافقه وصفًا طريفًا للقصر فى أوائل أيامه. يقول أول وآخر بالنزهة وأنه شاهد األنيق امللون احلوائط بورق أن حوائطه غلفت مدفأة صادفها فى كل قصور القاهرة التى زارها، وأن حجرات النوم التى تغطى اخلواجا أن الطريف اخلالصة. الفضة من أِسّرة رقيقة حتوى ستائر شبابيكها القرن أواخر فى مصر فى اجلواهرجية أشهر من واحداً Eliakim إلياقيم ن ثروة هائلة حني اشترى هذه األسرة فى املزاد على أنها من التاسع عشر كَوّ

املعدن ثم اكتشف أنها فضة خالصة!

املهم فى هذا الوصف أنه ينفى ما ذهبت إليه كثير من املصادر من أن النزهة القصر أن ويثبت إسماعيل اخلديو عهد فى للضيافة قصراً استخدامه بدأ استضاف كبار ضيوف مصر منذ أيامه األولى فى عهد سعيد باشا. فى ذلك

الوقت كان غفير القصر اسمه سليم سليمان، معلومة ال أهمية لها!

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شارع شبرا حيث كان يقع القصر١- رسم كاريكاتورى لسير ستيفني كييف الذى بعث ملصر فى ديسمبر ١٨٧٥ على رأس

جلنه لتفقد أحوال البلد املالية عقب موافقة اخلديو اسماعيل على بيع أسهم القناة إلجنلتر ٢-اماديو األول ملك اسبانيا الذى زار القصر فى عام ١٨٦٩

6

أن املهم األسباب، من علينا ما ظروفًا – سعيدة طبعًا – قادتنى ألحضر أشهر «كان»؛ مدينة فى انعقد مؤمتراً مصايف أوروبا وأعالها صيتًا. ما هذه األبهة وكيف هذا اجلمال! جمال الناس والسيارات واملبانى والشواطئ والشوارع

واملقاهى وكل شئ!

كارلتون فندق تراس فى جلست دعاية هذه ليست طبعًا العريق، أثرى من بزبائنه يزخر فالفندق له؛ مقالتى دعاية تنقصه وال العالم أثرياء بعد قهوة، فنجان طلبت املتواضعة! بفنجان احلسناء املضيفة جاءت دقائق متناهى الصغر– تقريبًا مقاس الزى الذى

ترتديه – دفعت فيه ثمن وجبة محترمة تهنأ بها فى واحد من مطاعم قاهرة املعز الفاخرة أنت واألسرة الكرمية! تناسيت الغرامة وجلست أتأمل ما أراه؛ زرقة املاء والسماء وخضرة األشجار وفتنة املصطافات وهن يسبحن أو يتهادين LA CROISETTE املشهور «ال كروازيت» الكورنيش على رصيف فغلفتها املمشوقة أقوامهن الشمس داعبت وقد والدالل األناقة فى يتبارين بلون برونزٍى ساحر يزيد امتشاقها جماًال وجاذبية! السيارات الفارهة تكمل الصورة وتزيدها بهاءاً وروعة وقد أخذت تنساب أمامى حتفة وراء أخرى، بني ليموزين رائعة مثل رولز رويس وبنتلى إلى رياضية فاتنة كفيرارى وميزاراتى، أما فقراء القوم هناك فتجدهم فى مرسيدس وبى أم دبليو، أنا شخصيًا رحت

فى تاكسى!بني كل هذه األبهة جلست أحتسى فنجان القهوة الذى نفذ فى رشفتني،

أتعرف مبا ذكرنى هذا املشهد، بحى شبرا.. تخيل!!

شبرا، هذا احلى الصاخب املتكدس، أذكر أننا منذ سنوات قليلة كّنا نحن سكان القاهرة نردد فزعني أن به خمسة ماليني نسمة، أى أنه فى حجم مملكة الدمنارك، واليوم نردد – ونحن أكثر فزعًا – أن به سبعة ماليني، أى أنه فى حجم جمهورية النمسا، وأخشى ما أخشاه أن أعيش حتى يوم تبلغ فيه شبرا

حجم االحتاد األوروبى، فأموت فزعًا!

بيد أن شبرا التى تذكرتها مع قهوة «ال كروازيت» مختلفة، هى شبرا كما نضرة وحتف كانت تضم حقوًال فى صورها حني النظر وأطلت عنها قرأت بشوارعها الواسعة أشجاراً سامقة باسقة. تخيلت لو عاد بى الزمان وجلست عشر الستمتعت التاسع القرن سبعينيات فى شبرا مقاهى من واحدة على مبنظر مكافئ ملا أخذنى فى «كان». كانت شبرا فى ذلك الزمان مكان التنزه

الرئيسى شارعها فى ترى والرياضة، اجلياد املطهمة - احسبها فيرارى ذلك كرام جترها الفخمة والعربات - العصر اخليل - افرضها رولز رويس ذلك الزمان - يتقدمهما قمشجية وسّياس ينبهون ويكملون الطريق ويفسحون املارة من بعضًا ُتِقل العربات األبهة. مظهر وأميرات وباشاوات، أمراء القوم، علية البرونزى اللون نقصهن رمبا وهوامن، لكنه لم ينتقص منهن جماًال وال سحراً!

شارع شبرا، الذى اعتبر املرور فيه اآلن يدهمك إما لالنتحار؛ جادة محاولة أو االجتاه عكس فى آتى ميكروباص تختنق من عادم السيارات أو فى القليل تصاب بانهيار عصبى من أصوات الكالكسات وأبواق محال شرائط األغانى الهابطة. شارع شبرا الذى قفز إلى ذهنى يومئذ كان يظلله صفوف من شجر اجلميز العتيق زرع فى عهد محمد على باشا وترشه عربات البلدية كل يوم وعلى جانبيه أروع قصور القاهرة، مثل قصر محمد على وإينجو هامن أرملة

سعيد باشا وقصر شيكوالنى البديع الزخرفة احلافل بالتماثيل النادرة.

فكان احلشيش، إلى خطورة فطن قد املجتمع يكن لم الوقت، ذلك فى من الكيوف أصحاب يقصدها قهوة بشبرا وكان إال، ليس مخالفة تعاطيه السراة إسمها قهوة سى خليل بلغت حداً كبيراً من الشهرة حتى دَبّج أحد

روادها شعراً قال فيه

كل شىء فى مصر يوجد إال قهوة سى خلـيلواحلشيش مالوش مثيل الكيوف فيها نضيــفه

قناطير بارود من جبخانات احملروسة!

نعود إلى سنة ٢٠٠٩، وقد منع احلشيش وأصاب شبرا ما بها، ومات سى خليل وحلق به القصر الذى نؤرخ له هنا؛ قصر النزهة. كان القصر يقع على اجلهة الغربية من شارع شبرا الذى حدثتك عنه، يتوسط حديقة غّناء يتاخم سورها الشرقى الشارع، بينما احلديقة أوسع من اجلهة الغربية والبحرية للقصر

ليكون اسمًا على مسمى؛ مكانًا للنزهة.

اتفق املؤرخون على أن النزهة ولد حوالى سنة ١٨٥٨، ولكن اختلفوا فى

بحث للمهندس / عمرو سميح طلعت

نزهة.. من كَاْن إلى سِى خليل!أن املهم األسباب، من علينا ما قادتنى ألحضر أشهر «كان»؛ مدينة فى انعقد مؤمتراً قادتنى ألحضر أشهر «كان»؛ مدينة فى انعقد مؤمتراً قادتنى ألحضر

مصايف أوروبا وأعالها صيتًا. ما هذه أشهر «كان»؛ مدينة فى انعقد مؤمتراً مصايف أوروبا وأعالها صيتًا. ما هذه أشهر «كان»؛ مدينة فى انعقد مؤمتراً

األبهة وكيف هذا اجلمال! جمال الناس والسيارات واملبانى والشواطئ والشوارع

كارلتون فندق تراس فى جلست دعاية هذه ليست طبعًا العريق، كارلتون فندق تراس فى جلست دعاية هذه ليست طبعًا العريق، كارلتون فندق تراس فى جلست

أثرى من بزبائنه يزخر فالفندق له؛ مقالتى دعاية تنقصه وال العالم أثرياء بعد قهوة، فنجان طلبت املتواضعة! بفنجان احلسناء املضيفة جاءت دقائق تقريبًا مقاس الزى الذى بفنجان احلسناء املضيفة جاءت دقائق تقريبًا مقاس الزى الذى بفنجان احلسناء املضيفة جاءت دقائق

5

كما تتدفق مياه النيل، مرة تفيض هادرة، ومرة تنسحب منحسرة، كذلك البشر، لم تنقطع املياة من املجري قط، ولم يتوقف توالي االنسان، استمرارية الوجود، لم ينقطع وجود املصريني، وفد عليهم بشر أخرون، جري استيعاب وتغير، متغيرات متت في هدوء، وأخري عنيفه، مؤمله، في أحد املراحل طال اللغة واملعتقد والنظام املستقر منذ آالف السنني، هُزم املصريون ماديا وروحيا عندما قبلوا اإلسكندر االكبر بإعتباره ابن االله آمون، ونصبه الكهنة في واحة العصر بدأ فقط، كيميت من خارج حدود الفراعنة يكن لم فرعونًا، سيوة البطلمي، لكن ما أستوعبت مصر احلكام اجلدد، اعتنقوا رؤيتها متاما. عندما نقترب من معبد حتحور في دندرة، أو حورس في أدفو، لن نشك في أنه معبد فرعوني بكل مظهره السافر و املكنون. وإن لم يعرف الزائر اخلط الهيروغليفي االجنبية. عانت البطاملة ذوي االصول املعبد هم بني أن من ابدا فلن يدرك مصر من الغزو الفارسي، واآلشوري، وقبائل البدو في الصحارى احمليطة، في الرومانية، وجري تغير مرحلة أخري أصبحت مصر والية تابعة لالمبراطورية روحي عميق عندما اعتنقت مصر املسيحية التي أري انها اعادة صياغة للدين و رؤيتهم هم، أضافوا الوافدة الديانة املصريون اعتنق ذاته، وعندما املصري

ماتزال سائدة وراسخة رغم عصور االضطهاد في العصر الروماني. بأساليب لكن قليال، ينفذ رمبا و السطح، يطال يطرأ عميق متغير كل العمق، حيث ال القدمي، هناك في املكنون القوم في احلفاظ علي يبدأ شتى تفاصيل في يستمر املضمون هذا يجتثوه. أو يطولوه أن جدد لغزاة ميكن احلياة اليومية، الطعام، مفرداته، طريقة طهيه، تقدميه، اآلداب املرتبطه به، في األم املرأة خاصة، املتوارثة عبر املعتقدات الشعبي، في املوسيقي، في األدب التي تلقنها لالبناء مع حليب الرضاع، في العمارة، من اللحظات التي أطيل ايزيس معبد في الليلة تلك ما جرى خاللها، أشهد أن أمتني فيها، التأمل رمز لعبادة فيه تقام الشعائر ظلت معبد آخر اجلنوب، بأقصي فيلة بجزيرة فيما املصريني التي أصبحت عند ايزيس اإللهه والتضحيه. واالنوثة األمومة بعد » العذراء« ثم » السيده زينب« شقيقة اإلمام احلسني. اصدر االمبراطور الليلة انحاء مصر، في تلك املصرية في سائر الشعائر بابطال أوامره الروماني ُتليت الصلوات من أجل اإللهة ايزيس و ترددت الترانيم، أغلق املعبد لكن ... هل انتهت عبادة ايزيس فعال؟ هل تواري رمز االمومة والتضحيه، االم واالخت

والزوجة احلنون ام انه أتخذ بعدا اشسع أكثر رحابة؟ منهكة، امليالدي، كانت مصر السابع القرن في العرب مصر عندما دخل مثخنة بجراحها لكنها لم تكن خاوية، كان املصريون يعتنقون املسيحية طبقا لرؤية الكنيسة املصرية القبطية، كان املاضي البعيد مبهمًا، غامضًا، اختفت مستمرة أصبحت املقدسة، الهيريوغليفية التاريخ، في ابجدية اول دالالت في اللغة القبطية التي امتزجت قليال باليونانية وأخذت ابجديتها. اما العمائر الهائله من معابد ومنشآت ومقابر فقد اختفت دالالتها، حتولت الي اطالل، بل انها حتولت الي خرائب بأيدي املصريني أنفسهم، وهذا ما وقفت عليه من

مظاهر االستمرارية والتغير.عندما اعتنق املصريون املسيحية الوافدة اعتبروا الديانة القدمية معادية، بدأ بعضهم حتطيم رموزها، هذا ما نراه في االجزاء السفلية من معبد ابيدوس على هذا واألنوف، العيون خاصة مشوهة، اجلدارية اللوحات نري املثال، سبيل معتقد مصري قدمي، فعندما كان املصري يرسم شخص و يقدم علي تسميل النظر نفسه من الشخص له حرمان بالنسبة يعني فهذا أو تشويههما عينية التي املصرية الثقافة بنفس هكذا اعدامه. أي والتنفس، الرؤية اي والشم، غير كفارا بأعتبارهم األجداد تراث يدمرون اجلديد بالدين املؤمنون ورثها

ذلك علي أقدموا أنهم به قاموا ما اجلدد حتت املؤمنون يكتب ثم مؤمنني، تقربا الي الرب. عندما غزا العرب مصر و جاءوا لنشر الدين اجلديد، االسالم الذي يحرم التصوير والنحت، رغم ذلك فإنهم لم يلحقوا أذى كبيرا باألثار في البالد الهل تقربا رمبا ملاذا؟، وثنية، أصناما لها اعتبارهم رغم القائمة، البداية، و رمبا لسريان و قوة االسطورة. عندما كنت طفال صغيرا في قريتي جهينة بجنوب مصر، كان االهالي يصفون التماثيل املصرية القدمية القائمة في اجلبل باملساخيط، اي أن هذه التماثيل كانت في األصل بشرا ثم سخطهم اهلل حجارة بسبب معاصي ارتكبوها. وكان هناك آخرون يقولون إن هذه التماثيل العالم اآلخر حتميها وتؤذي من يقترب منها أو عليها ارصاد، أي حراس من يتعرض لها بسوء، هذا امتداد للمعتقد املصري القدمي، فتمثال انوبيس يوضع

امام املقبرة عند املدخل ليحميها، كذلك الرسوم والتعاويذ.

املناهج بعض آخرين، الي متت كأنها الظاهر في القدمية مصر تبدو اآلن الدراسية تقول مبرحلة فرعونية وأخري قبطية وثالثة إسالمية، وفي رأي هذا مفهوم خاطئ، فالتاريخ املصري واحد لكن تختلف مراحله، جوهره مستمر في الثقافة العميقة، الدفينة للبشر، صحيح ان تلك الثقافة تغيرت في تلك املراحل، لكنه تغير خارجي لم ميس الصميم، تلك هي اجلدليه ولب املشكله

في ثقافة املصريني.ثمة مشكلة أخري، فالرؤية العبرانية للمصريني انتقلت الي املسيحية ثم الي االسالم، الفرعون اصبح رمز الطغيان وفقا للنص املقدس، سواء العهد القدمي من احفاد ألنهم بالفخر املصريون يشعر الوقت نفس في الكرمي، القرآن أو ابدعوا هذه الفنون كلها، من عمارة ورسم وأدب، ذلك هو التناقض في وعي غالبية املصريني خالل العقود االخيرة بدءا من السبعينات في القرن املاضي، مع تصاعد التشدد االسالمي املستند الي التعاليم الوهابية القادمة من الصحراء، يشعر لم االجنليزي االحتالل عام 1919 ضد الكبري الوطنية الثورة خالل املصريون بهذا التناقض، كان ابتعاث التقاليد املصرية القدمية في العمارة، في الرسم، في االبداع االدبي، ملمحا هاما حلركة النهضة، دائما يعيد املصريون كانوا التي املراحل في النهضة، الي تطلعهم عند البعيدة اجلذور اكتشاف اململوكي العصر في ذلك جند كما القدمي تاريخهم تفاصيل فيها يجهلون اململوكي، العصر في التي شيدت املصرية املساجد العمارة، في وبالتحديد اال ماهي 1517 عام العثمانيني األتراك مواجهة في املماليك هزمية حتي املصرية اللغة اسرار اكتشاف بعد القدمي. املصري املعمار لتقاليد استعادة القدمية علي يدي شامبليون وبدء وعي املصريني بتفاصيل تاريخهم، أصبحت مصر القدمية مصدر الهام ثري، تأثرت الرؤية سلبيا بتيارين سياسيني، االول هو القومي العربي اثناء فترة مده فى اخلمسينات والستينيات والذي اعتبر مفكروه مصر الفرعونية نقيضا للفكرة العربية، وفي العقود االخيرة تتبني الرؤي املعادية بعض التيارات الدينية االسالمية املتشددة. إن وضع املراحل التاريخية لوطن قدمي مثل مصر في تعارض مع بعضها البعض ملمًا يثير األسى، لكنها خطايا عابرة في تقديري، فلكم مرت رياح هبوب، بعضها مدمر علي النهر والوادي لنبصره الي جهد العمق، نحتاج فقط ان اجلوهر ظل مصونًا في البشر، غير ونرصده. عندئذ نكتشف اجناز الثقافة املصرية العميق، االستمرار مع التغير، هذا االكتشاف ضروري لروح االمة وللتوازن الروحي عند املصريني، يقتضي اعتبر انني متعددة، مستويات وعلي املدي بعيدة ثقافية وجهود دراسات صدور هذه املطبوعة الراقية املعنية باملضمون الثقافي ملصر سواء في املاضي أو

احلاضر خطوة هامة جداً علي هذا الطريق.

4

تأمالت

بقلم جمال الغيطاني

اإلستمرارية في الثقافة المصرية

وغير موجود الفراش، فوق متدد احلياة، في رحلته والدي امت عندما الي سنا أكبرهم وقف عليه، أخيرة نظرة أللقاء األقارب جاء موجود، جواره، أنحنى حتى قارب فمه الألذن التي لم تعد تسمع، غير أنه نطق بعبارات مؤثرة، ناداه باسمه كأنه حي، ثم طلب منه االيشعر بالوحدة، كل هؤالء جاءوا من أجله، وألنه صالح أدي رسالته في احلياة كما يجب، فلن يلقى مخاطر في الطريق، واذا واجه بعضها فليتلو بعض آيات القرآن

الكرمي.رغم أن اجلمل من القرآن، من التراث االسالمي، اال أن هذا الطقس الذي مارسه أقدم اقاربنا عمرا ميت الي معتقدات مصرية عتيقة، الي ثقافة مصرية غائرة، ميارسها املصريون علي اختالف معتقداتهم وهم ال يعون انهم يستمرون بثقافة األجداد، متاما كما ينطقون مئات االلفاظ في لغة تعاملهم اليومية وهم أضفت خاصة تراكيب في تدخل قدمية، مصرية كلمات أتها يعلمون ال

اخلصوصية علي العامية املصرية املتفردة في إطار اللغة العربية الفصحى.أحيانا أتوقف في الريف املصري، خاصة في اجلنوب الذي ولدت فيه قرب الي قرص مرفرف، لطائر مزرعة، لقرية، امام مشهد معني وابيدوس، األقصر الشمس عند املغيب او الشروق، الي عودة الفالحني من احلقول الي البيوت، العربات اذا تصادف ألغي بعقلي بعض وسائل العصر، مثل اعمدة االنارة او املرسومة علي جدران وجودها، عندئذ ال أري أي تناقض بني مشاهد احلياة

املقابر وتلك التي تطالعني.اشم رائحة اخلبيز فى البيوت، خاصة العيش الشمسي، طريقة اخلبز املصرية القدمية، أن يوضع العجني في النهار ليرضع من الكون، من أشعة الشمس. الرائحه نفس انها أثق الفرن، من وخروجه نضجه عند احلياة رائحة أتنسم التي عرفها األجداد القدامى منذ االف االعوام. مازال متحف تورينو يحتفظ بثمانية أرغفة في مقبرة كا، أنه عني اخلبز الذي فتحت عيني عليه في صعيد امللوحه ( السمك املش، اجلنب، بدءا من الطعام، اتأمل وسائل حفظ مصر، والفسيخ( وامللوخية الناشفة، ما تزال تعد بنفس الطرق التي كانت متبعة، بل ان شكل اجللسة حول )الطبلية( وآداب الطعام ال يختلفان كثيرا عن الرسم.

الصحفية اليوم أخبار مبؤسسة مكتبي الي طريقي في كنت صباح ذات حيث تقع في واحد من أقدم أحياء القاهرة، بوالق، فجأه رأيت مجموعة من أحداهن شابة، بالسواد، النساء يخرجن من حارة جانبية، كلهن متشحات فارهة الطول، تتوسط الصف األول ، وجهها ملطخ بالنيله الزرقاء، عالمة احلزن املصري القدمي، تقوم بحركات تشبه الرقص، لكنه رقص ملتاع، حزين، يداها للنائحات الشهير املشهد عني رأيت اللحظه تلك في أعلى، الي تتحركان في مقبرة راموزا بالبر الغربي باالقصر، إنه مشهد يتكرر كثيرا في املقابر التي نتيجه األقسي احلزن االبدي، احلزن عن االنساني التعبير انه الينا، وصلت اعتبروه املوت، القدماء املصريون رفض بسببه املؤلم، احلزن الفقراء، الفقد، بدايه حلياة االبدية، اطلقوا عليه اخلروج الي النهار، اذ يتحد االنسان بعد موته بضوء النجوم. في مصر العليا عندما يري الناس نيزكا يهوي ليال، يقولون أنه روح مغضوب عليها، مطرودة من راحة األبد، أو انها روح انسان تخرج في تلك اللحظة، ثمه صلة بني الكون الفسيح ومظاهره، وبني االنسان، بني أدق

تفاصيل احلياة وكافة مظاهر الطبيعة. خالل تنقلي بني احلاضر الذي أعيشه واملاضي الذي أقرأ عنه، عرفت العنصران االساسيان اللذان يحكمان احلياة املصرية وثقافتها. إنهما االستمرارية والتغيير، عنصران متضادان، متالزمان، متفاعالن، يشكالن جوهر احلالةالتي أدت الي

تأسيس أول مفردات احلضارة االنسانية وأقدم مفرداتها.نهر النيل بال شك هو الشريان الرئيسي لتلك احلياة التي سعت الي ضفتيه، انه االنسان الذي جفف املستنقعات وتوصل الي واحد من أعظم اكتشافات البشرية، الزراعة، السيطرة علي النهر الذي يشكل خطرا داهما اذا زاد فيضانه، تنقية البذور، بالزراعة، بوضع تتعلق ايضا. عندما عرفت تفاصيل واذا شح أقتضي السنني من تساءلت؟ كم آفاتها، مقاومة رعايتها، التربة، سقايتها، تلي التي املنطقة تلك في ملاذا ذلك. معرفة الي االنسان توصل حتي األمر تلك البحر، مبوج والتقائها شماال البر حدود وحتي أسوان عند الشالالت املنطقة التي نسميها مصر أو كيميت في الزمن القدمي أي األرض السوداء؟ كم الزراعة، الي ابتكار حروف الكتابة، الزمن توصل خالله االنسان الي سر من

ترميز الواقع؟ ملاذا لم تظهر تلك احلضارة في مناطق أخرى من النهر من منابعه االثيوبيةأو البحيراتية حتي الشالالت؟ يتعلق األمر بالبشر الذين عاشوا في تلك املنطقة، انهم املصريون الذين عاشوا فوق هذه االرض، عانوا، وتأملوا حركة الكون من الفيضان، النقطة، أول نقطة ماء في النهر، نزول شروق وغروب، تدفق مياه البداية اعتباره ميكن النقطه نزول سوتيس، النجم ظهور مع صيفا وصولها وتلك البعيده، جذورهم تعنيني ال للقوم، والثقافي الروحي للتكوين الي منها قدموا التي املناطق حول املتخصصني يطرحها التي االفتراضات الوادي، ما يعنيني اجنازهم االنساني الذي هو ثقافي وروحي باالساس، الثقافة

مبعني محاولة فهم الكون، املوقف من احلياة.